There are 80 prints in Francisco Goya’s series Los Caprichos. Created mainly in 1797–1798 and published as an album in 1799, the set combines etching and aquatint to produce stark lines and dramatic areas of light and shadow.
The prints satirize Spanish society, targeting superstition, religious fanaticism, the Inquisition, social inequality, flawed education, marriage customs, and the abuses of the nobility and clergy. Goya described his subjects broadly as the faults and prejudices found in civil society, rather than openly naming particular people.
A common mix-up is confusing the number of prints with the number of copies produced. Goya initially advertised each collection as 80 prints, while roughly 300 copies were offered in the first edition. The series was withdrawn shortly after publication, probably because its attacks on powerful institutions risked trouble with the Inquisition. Plate 43, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, is its best-known image, and the series later influenced Romanticism, Impressionism, Expressionism, and Surrealism.