1789. Pen, Ferrobolic ink on verjured paper, 216 x 149 mm. Un exposed

Letter from Francisco de Goya to Martín Zapater (1746-1803), his childhood friend in Zaragoza, with mention of the debt incurred with Zapater for the advancement of an amount to Goya's sister for the payment of the rent of the house, and colloquial and joque comparisons between the situation of both friends.

In 2004 a set of twenty letters from Francisco de Goya (19 addressed to Martín Zapater and one to Joaquina Alduy, Zapater's aunt), acquired by the State in Madrid, entered the Prado Museum at public auction. This is completed in the Museum, depositary of Goya's largest and richest work in all its facets, that important correspondence of the artist, who from that year will almost entirely keep the Prado. Goya's correspondence with Zapater is essential to the artist's knowledge. Not only because of the many biographical issues that appear in it, dated between 1775 and 1799, the years of Goya's rise in the Court, until his appointment as First Chamber Painter, but for revealing with absolute truthfulness, without disguise or reservations, the character and personality of Goya. The value of the originals in the case of Goya is fundamental, since, unfortunately, some of the documents relating to his life and his work, published as old, cannot be located today, thus questioning the news that appears in them. These letters from Goya are from your hand. The special spelling of the artist, the graphic and visual form with which he expresses his ideas, as well as some that other illustrative drawing make them doubly important to determine his personal and unique way of using space, similar to that of his original paintings, etchings and drawings. They are undoubtedly a fundamental touchstone also for the knowledge and precision of Goya's art.