Plate 51 from ‘Los Caprichos’: They spruce themselves up (Se repulen.)

Description

In They spruce themselves up, grotesque figures trim nails and attend to one another’s appearance, making grooming an activity shared by an uncanny company. Francisco Goya’s They Spruce Themselves Up draws humor from the persistence of social habits within distorted bodies. The effort to become presentable seems no less earnest for taking place among creatures whose nature resists ordinary respectability.

Published in 1799 as plate 51 of Los Caprichos, the etching and burnished aquatint give the gathering a dark, concentrated atmosphere. Goya lets a familiar desire for polish survive within a world of fantasy. The contrast between the participants and their grooming exposes the limits of surface improvement: changing an appearance does not necessarily change what lies beneath it. The scene remains compelling through that recognizable vanity, where an impossible company behaves with surprisingly ordinary concern for how it looks.

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