Goya: The Disasters of War

Following his tenure as court painter for the Spanish royal family, Francisco de Goya’s art took on darker subjects and a more expressive style, especially during the Peninsular War (1808–14). Much can be gleaned from the fraught and visceral work of this period, including his series of etchings known as The Disasters of War.

Concerned about the state of the world as much as his own failing health, Goya spent 10 years on what he personally titled Fatal Consequences of Spain’s Bloody War with Bonaparte, and Other Emphatic Caprices. Starvation, sickness, looting, assault, torture, execution―each image confronts the shattered lives of everyday soldiers and civilians, accompanied by brief, ambiguous captions such as “Y no hay remedio” (“And there is no remedy”) and “Yo lo vi” (“This I saw”).

This clothbound book faithfully reproduces the first edition of the complete set of 80 works which was published in 1863, 35 years after Goya’s death. It features exquisite printing quality on paper that closely resembles the texture of the original engravings, in a similar format and scale. War is still a condition of human existence today; Goya’s etchings are timeless for their vehement denunciation of its atrocities committed by all combatants, regardless of their national affiliations.