The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters
Spanish: El sueño de la razón produce monstruos
Artist	Francisco de Goya
Year	c. 1799
Type	Etching, aquatint, drypoint and burin

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (Spanish: El sueño de la razón produce monstruos) is an etching made by the Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco Goya. Etched between 1797–1799, it is plate 43 of the 80 etchings making up the Los Caprichos series.

In the etching that might have served as the frontispiece to his suite of satires, Los Caprichos, Goya imagined himself asleep amid his drawing tools, his reason dulled by sleep and bedeviled by creatures that prowl in the dark. The artist's nightmare reflected his view of Spanish society, which he portrayed as demented, corrupt, and ripe for ridicule.

It consists of a self-portrait of the artist with his head on a table, as owls and bats surround him, assailing him as he buries his head into his arms. Seemingly poised to attack the artist are owls (symbols of folly) and bats (symbols of ignorance).

The full epigraph for caprichio #43 is, “Fantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of their marvels.”

Date: 1799

Medium: Etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin on laid paper

Dimensions: image: 7 1/16 x 4 3/4 in. (18 x 12.1 cm) plate: 8 3/8 x 5 15/16 in. (21.2 x 15.1 cm) sheet: 11 5/8 x 8 1/4 in. (29.5 x 21 cm)

Classification: Prints

Preparatory drawings

• 
  1797
• 
  1797