Lot 615 | Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes | Desastres de la Guerra

GOYA Y LUCIENTES, FRANCISCO JOSÉ DE
1746 Fuente de Todos - 1828 Bordeaux

Title: Desastres de la Guerra.
80 works from the series of 82 sheets, framed individually.
Technique: Aquatint on paper.
Mounting: Mounted.
Measurement: Each 23.5 x 33.5cm.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Exhibitions:
"Goyas Erben", Exhibition Stiftung Opelvillen, Rüsselsheim, 2012/2013;
"Alles Kannibalen?", Exhibition me Collectors Room Berlin, 2011.

Provenance:
Collection Prof. Dr. Thomas Olbricht, Essen, acquired 2000.

Under the impression of the suppression of the uprising of the Spanish population against the French occupation, this series was realised in the years 1810 to 1814. It depicts in drastic images the atrocities of the war as well as the position of the clergy at that time.
Goya himself never published these sheets. They were not published until 35 years after his death for the first time. Further editions followed in 1892, 1903 and 1906.

His large-scale series of etchings in particular show the artist's critical engagement with the political conditions in Spain in the early 19th century. Trained as a classical Baroque painter, he went on to create portraits for the Spanish court, religious works of art and designs for tapestries. He established himself at court and rose to become Pintor del Rey. But from the 1790s at the latest, his works reveal an increasingly realistic view of society, expressed in scenes from simpler society. "His novel naturalism in the figures and his satirical, moral and universal mode of representation - an absolute novelty in Spanish painting - echo the ideas of Tiepolo in Italy or of Hogarth in England." (quoted from Manuela Mena Marqués in her article on Goya in the Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, vol. LIX, 2008, p. 433)
Due to his illness, he increasingly switched to printmaking and created various extensive cycles in which he dealt with political and social circumstances of his time. "Los Desastes de la Guerra" is certainly one of the most impressive episodes of this period.

We will be happy to send you more images upon request.