Francisco de Goya

Bandits Shooting their Prisoners (Bandidos fusilando a sus prisioneros)

Bandits Shooting their Prisoners (Bandidos fusilando a sus prisioneros)
Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1808 - 1812
Ubicación
Marquis of La Romana Collection, Madrid, Spain
Dimensiones
40 x 32 cm
Técnica y soporte
Oil on canvas
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Documented work
Titular
Marquis of La Romana Collection
Ficha: realización/revisión
11 May 2010 / 15 Jun 2023
Otros títulos:
Bandits Shooting some of their Prisoners (Bandidos que fusilan a algunos de sus prisioneros)
Historia

The complete series of eleven paintings was acquired from Goya by the Majorcan collector Juan de Salas, father of Dionisia Salas y Boxadors, who was married to Pedro Caro y Sureda (Palma de Mallorca, 1761-Cartaxo, Portugal, 1811), III Marquis of La Romana.

The painting was inherited by its current owners.

Análisis artístico

This work can be directly related to two others in the series belonging to the Marquis of La Romana: Bandit Stripping a Woman and Bandit Murdering a Woman.

A group of bandits are shown killing some men they have attacked on their way along a highway. In the midst of much confusion, an elegantly dressed woman flings her arms in the air and begs for mercy whilst on the right-hand side of the composition a man with a blindfold over his eyes and wearing a white shirt awaits his execution at the hands of the man in the centre, who is taking aim with a gun. The rest of the attackers, armed with pistols, threaten a man lying on the ground.

Goya has painted this work using delicate, thin layers of colour, applied in transparent washes, picked out with small touches of thick paint and outlines drawn in black. This way of working recalls the technique used in the drawings found in the Madrid Album, or Album B, made between 1796 and 1797.

There exists a replica of this painting which belonged to Eissier in Vienna. It was exhibited in the Austrian capital in 1908, listed as coming from the Madrid collection of La Romana.

In this work, Goya has depicted a scene of banditry, a threat which anyone travelling at the time would have been all too aware of. This same subject matter is also dealt with in Stagecoach Hijacking, Bandits' Raid and in the series Capture of the Bandit El Maragato. Although the Aragonese artist tackles the theme realistically in these others works, none of them have the same directness and veracity of Bandits Shooting their Prisoners.

Exposiciones
  • Goya 1900
    Ministerio de Instrucción Pública and Bellas Artes
    Madrid
    1900
    consultant editors Aureliano de Beruete, Alejandro Ferrant, Marqués de Pidal and Ricardo Velázquez. May 1900
  • Pinturas de Goya
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1928
    consultant editor Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor. From April to May 1928
  • Goya. El Capricho y la Invención. Cuadros de gabinete, bocetos y miniaturas
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1993
    from November 18th 1993 to February 15th 1994. Exhibited also at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, March 18th to June 12th 1994 and The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, July 16th to October 16th 1994, consultant editors Manuela B. Mena Marqués and Juliet Wilson-Bareau
  • Goya
    Basle
    2021
Bibliografía
  • DESPARMET FITZ - GERALD, Xavier
    L'œuvre peint de Goya. 4 vols
    París
    1928-1950
    p. 228, cat. 194
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    p. 263, cat. 918
  • GUDIOL RICART, José
    BarcelonaPolígrafa
    1970
    vol. I, pp. 294 y 295, cat. 349
  • ANGELIS, Rita de
    L’opera pittorica completa di Goya
    MilanRizzoli
    1974
    p. 122, cat. 491
  • CAMÓN AZNAR, José
    Francisco de Goya, 4 vols.
    ZaragozaCaja de Ahorros de Zaragoza, Aragón y Rioja
    1980-1982
    vol. III, p. 192
  • MENA, Manuela B. y WILSON-BAREAU, Juliet (comisarias)
    Goya. El capricho y la invención. Cuadros de gabinete, bocetos y miniaturas
    MadridMuseo del Prado
    1993
    pp. 276, 277, 278, y 279 (il.), cat. 76
Enlaces externos
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