Description
In Why hide them?, a man huddles over bags of wealth while surrounding figures respond with expressions of mockery. Francisco Goya’s Why Hide Them? places possession beside a futile wish to conceal. The owner’s bodily closeness to his treasure makes attachment visible, suggesting that the effort to guard it has begun to organize his whole presence.
Published in 1799 as plate 30 of Los Caprichos, the etching and burnished aquatint turn avarice into a social encounter rather than a solitary emblem. The figures nearby make clear that concealment has not produced security or respect. Goya’s title questions the point of secrecy when the obsession is already evident. Its force lies in that contradiction, showing wealth as something held tightly yet unable to protect its holder from exposure, ridicule or the narrowing of his own life.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Goya collection.
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