Plate 22 from ‘Los Caprichos’: Poor little girls! (Probrecitas!)

Description

In Poor little girls!, two young women are led into a situation that deprives them of freedom, their closeness offering little protection against the surrounding authority. Francisco Goya’s Poor Little Girls! gives the scene an explicitly sympathetic caption. The brief exclamation directs attention toward their vulnerability rather than allowing the encounter to become a detached study of social disorder.

Published in 1799 as plate 22 of Los Caprichos, the etching and burnished aquatint make the figures substantial within a constraining setting. Goya’s social satire here carries an undercurrent of concern for those subjected to judgment and control. The title’s sympathy does not remove the severity of their circumstances. Instead, it heightens the tension between the human lives at the center and a world that appears ready to define or punish them.

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