Mala noche (Bad night),

1799

In his celebrated set of eighty aquatints, collectively entitled Los Caprichos, Goya commented on the ironies, hypocrisies, and cruelties of Spanish society in his day. The first half of the Los Caprichos etchings are witty, moralizing observations derived from modern life, such as this scene of two unaccompanied young women—quite possibly prostitutes—in a dark street on a stormy night. The second half of the Caprichos muses on the dangers of an immoral, corrupt society, represented in nightmarish allegorical tales populated with witches and demons. While Goya initially published the numbered series in 1799, fearing censorship due to the inflammatory nature of the subject matter, he quickly withdrew the publication—and never reprinted the series in his lifetime.