What courage !

Francisco Goya
Spain
30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828

What courage !
plate 7 from the series plate 7 from the series The Disasters of War
1810-15; published 1863
etching, aquatint, drypoint, engraving, burnishing on paper
Place made
Madrid
Medium
etching, aquatint, drypoint, engraving, burnishing on paper
Edition
1st ed., (b)
State
Harris (1968) 127 III first edition
Dimensions
15.3 x 20.5 cm (plate)
24.0 x 34.0 cm (sheet)
13.5 x 18.6 cm (image)
14.6 x 18.9 cm (image)
Credit line
South Australian Government Grant 1965
Accession number
6512G62
Signature and date
Not signed. Not dated.
Media category
Print
Collection area
European prints
Image credit
Photo: Saul Steed

  • The miseries and disasters of war: the prints of Goya and Callot, 2010

     

    Francisco Goya was Spain’s leading court painter when he created eighty prints entitled The Disasters of War. He made the series in response to the invasion of Spain by the French in 1808 and the bloody Peninsular War that followed. The six-year conflict between France, under Napoleon, and the alliance of Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom devastated Spain and its population, a situation intensified by the famine of 1811 and 1812, which affected Madrid. Goya witnessed the atrocities committed by the French and Spanish troops firsthand and recorded the daily cruelty and violence of the war. 

     

    In his prints Goya depicted in unflinching detail the corrosive, dehumanising effects of the conflict on all those affected by the war. Working over ten years, he portrayed the experience of war with an unprecedented directness, exploiting the qualities of etching and aquatint to create a new expressive language. Unlike Jacques Callot’s depictions of war, Goya’s compositions focused on the actions of small groups of people and placed the viewer in the heart of the carnage. The shocking imagery is magnified by Goya’s short and sometimes ambiguous titles, which build a harrowing narrative. Despite Goya’s deep pessimism about human nature, the series ends with a frail statement of hope.     

     

    Titled Fatal consequences of Spain’s bloody war with Buonaparte. And other emphatic caprices, the series can be divided into three parts: the first represents scenes of war; the second, the impact of the famine in Madrid; and the third, caprices or fantasies. The last group of prints are allegorical and appear to allude to the repressive regime of Ferdinand VII which followed the war. Goya, fearing persecution from King Ferdinand VII, did not publish Disasters of War during his lifetime.

     

    The Gallery owns a full set of Goya’s Disasters of War, from the First Edition, a selection of which is on display.

     

    Maria Zagala, Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs

  • Goya's Vision : drawings from the Prado Museum

    National Gallery of Victoria, 25 June 2021 – 3 October 2021

  • The Disasters of War

    Newcastle Art Gallery, 9 July 1969 – 10 August 1969

  • Francisco Goya: The Disasters of War

    Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki, 22 August 1984 – 19 September 1984

  • Dark Visions: the etchings of Goya

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 30 August 1996 – 10 November 1996
    Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 20 September 1997 – 30 November 1997
    Waikato Museum of Art and History, 12 January 1998 – 28 February 1998
    Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, 9 April 1998 – 24 May 1998
    Rockhampton Art Gallery, 5 June 1998 – 26 July 1998
    Cairns Art Gallery, 7 August 1998 – 20 September 1998
    Art Gallery of New South Wales, 30 September 1998 – 29 November 1998
  • [Book] Harris, Tomás. Goya. Engravings and lithographs.
  • [Catalogue] Kayser, Petra, ed. n.d. Goya: Drawings from the Prado Museum. n.p.: National Gallery of Victoria.
    Complimentary copy to come.
  • Francisco Goya 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828

    What courage !

    1810-15; published 1863
    etching, aquatint, drypoint, engraving, burnishing on paper
    Accession no: 6512G62