- Cronología
- Ca. 1810 - 1812
- Dimensiones
- 162 x 236 mm
- Técnica y soporte
- Etching and burin
- Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
- Undisputed work
- Ficha: realización/revisión
- 13 Dec 2010 / 24 May 2023
- Inventario
- 225
Goya (lower left-hand corner), 10 (lower left-hand corner)
See Sad presentiments of what must come to pass.
The title was handwritten on the print by Goya in the first and only series that is known to have been printed at the time the works were created, which the artist gave to his friend Agustín Ceán Bermúdez. Therefore, the title was etched into the plate at a later date and left unchanged as of the first edition of the Disasters of War printed by the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid in 1863, after the printing of the series in the possession of Ceán Bermúdez.
There is a surviving preparatory drawing for this print which is housed in the Prado Museum.
A group of people has been surprised in the middle of the night by an explosion caused by the war. In the centre of the scene is a great blaze of light and we can see some men and women running away from the blast. The figures on the left-hand side of the composition are situated closest to the blast, and they cover their faces with their hands to avoid being burnt. In the centre, two men rush to drag a woman dressed in white and stripped to the waist away from the explosion. Near them, another man is carrying an injured man with a bandaged head. On the right, various figures flee the scene: terrified, they trample over others who have fallen to the floor.
This print can be linked to no. 30, Ravages of war (Estragos de la guerra), in which Goya depicts the consequences of a bombing on the inside of a house. The work also shows strong similarities with the artist's two paintings Goya of fires. In these works, the fire - or in the case of the print, the explosion - is the central point from which the people depicted in the work flee, driven by panic.
Goya has made masterful use of etching techniques, creating a lighter space in the centre - the dazzling blast of the fire - from which dense, parallel lines emanate, suggesting the explosion. In this way, the artist accentuates the idea of a centrifugal force that forces the figures to flee towards the space outside the frame of the composition.
Jesusa Vega establishes a link between this print and the previous one in the series, no. 40, He gets something out of it (Algun partido saca). In this case, the present work would represent the destruction of the Buen Retiro porcelain factory by English troops.
The plate is stored in the National Chalcography (cat. 292).
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De grafiek van GoyaRijksmuseum RijksprentenkabinetAmsterdam1970from November 13th 1970 to January 17th 1971cat. 79
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Francisco de GoyaMuseo d'Arte ModernaLugano1996exhibition celebrated from September 22nd to November 17th.p. 158, cat. 41
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Francisco Goya. Sein leben im spiegel der graphik. Fuendetodos 1746-1828 Bordeaux. 1746-1996Galerie KornfeldBern1996from November 21st 1996 to January 1997cat. 126
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Francisco Goya. Capricci, follie e disastri della guerraSan Donato Milanese2000Opere grafiche della Fondazione Antonio Mazzottacat. 121
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Goya. Opera graficaPinacoteca del Castello di San GiorgioLegnano2006exhibition celebrated from December 16th 2006 to April 1st 2007p. 71
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Goya et la modernitéPinacothèque de ParisParís2013from October 11st 2013 to March 16th 2014cat. 80
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2022
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Goya, grabadorMadridBlass S.A.1918cat. 143
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Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.OxfordBruno Cassirer1964cat. 161
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Vie et ouvre de Francisco de GoyaParísOffice du livre1970cat. 1058
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Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca NacionalMadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional1996cat. 247
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ParísPinacoteca de París2013p. 140
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Goya. In the Norton Simon MuseumPasadenaNorton Simon Museum2016pp. 114-151
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Museo de Bellas Artes de Badajoz y Diputación de Badajoz2022p. 66