Subject: Graphic work from the second half of the 19th century. Desastres de la Guerra - Francisco de Goya.
Publication: Madrid, Taller de Laurenciano Potenciano para la Academia de Nobles Artes de San Fernando, 1863. First edition after correction of the titles.
Description: Fourth complete booklet (plates 31 to 40). Folder.
Measurements: 25 x 33 cm.
Technique: Etching on absorbent paper. Dark sepia ink. 'J.G.O.' watermark. Includes spelling corrections of some titles.
Conservation: Very good condition.
Bibliography: HARRIS, Thomas: Goya: Engravings and Lithographs.
Other information: "Los Desastres de la Guerra" is a series of 82 engravings by the Spanish painter Francisco de Goya, made between 1810 and 1815. The Spanish Independence War was an armed conflict that occurred between 1808 and 1814 within the context of the Napoleonic Wars, which faced the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom and Portugal against Napoleon militar forces, whose intention was, after the abdications of Bayona, to install his brother, José Bonaparte, on the Spanish throne and establish Spain as a satellite state of the First French Empire.
The horror of war is shown especially raw and penetrating in this series. The prints detail the cruelties committed in the Spanish War of Independence. During his lifetime, only two complete sets of Goya's engravings were printed, one of them given to his friend and art critic Ceán Bermúdez, but they remained unpublished. The first edition appeared in 1863, published at the initiative of Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. Others followed in 1892, 1903, 1906, 1923 and 1937.
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