They Have Flown, Plate 61 (1799): Art, History and Details

They Have Flown, Plate 61 (1799) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Francisco de Goya (Spanish, 1746–1828).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In the print series Los Caprichos, which translates as “caprices” or “artistic fantasies,” Francisco de Goya drew on his expansive imagination to comment on Spanish society. The artist’s critiques are not always clear, and many of the prints are intentionally ambiguous. Here, three witches support a young woman taking flight. Caught in the wind, her dress and veil transform her into a human butterfly, perhaps reflecting views at the time that characterized women as flighty. However, both the association of butterflies with life’s fragility and the presence of witches—often used by the artist to symbolize immorality and sex work—may instead invite a more sinister interpretation.

Object facts

• Title: They Have Flown, Plate 61
• Date: 1799
• Creator attribution: Francisco de Goya (Spanish, 1746–1828)
• Culture: Spain
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching and aquatint
• Dimensions: Image: 18.6 x 12.9 cm (7 5/16 x 5 1/16 in.); Plate: 21.4 x 15 cm (8 7/16 x 5 7/8 in.); Sheet: 31.9 x 22.3 cm (12 9/16 x 8 3/4 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1956.272

A detail from the museum

When Los Caprichos was first published in 1799, the series was sold in a perfumery and liquor shop in Madrid.

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Gifts of the Print Club of Cleveland.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 47, no. 2 (February 1960): 28–35.
• Kruse, Jillian. Imagination in the Age of Reason: Prints and drawings showcase imagination's power." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 65, no. 3 (2024): 6-7.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.