The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, plate 43 from Los Caprichos

Plate 43 of Los Caprichos, Goya’s suite of eighty etchings published in 1799. The artist slumps over his desk while owls and bats rise behind him; the caption is written on the desk itself.

Goya withdrew the series from sale not long after it appeared. The Spanish is El sueño de la razón produce monstruos, and sueño carries both senses — sleep and dream — which is why the plate is argued over: reason asleep, or reason dreaming.