- Cronología
- Ca. 1812 - 1815
- Dimensiones
- 157 x 208 mm
- Técnica y soporte
- Etching, lavis and drypoint
- Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
- Undisputed work
- Ficha: realización/revisión
- 08 Dec 2010 / 24 May 2023
- Inventario
- 225
See Sad presentiments of what must come to pass (Tristes presentimientos de lo que ha de acontecer).
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 are no surviving preparatory drawings for this print.
In the foreground Goya has etched a naked body which has been mutilated and brutally impaled on a tree. Behind this in the background a French soldier wields a sword: it is impossible to tell if he is killing someone or dismembering a corpse. On the left, another soldier is dragging another corpse along the ground by the legs.
The impaled body seems to be a demonstration of what the French were capable of in times of war. Goya has taken care over the depiction of the figure, which shows a clear classical influence. It could be said that the studies of the Belvedere Torso Goya made as a young man in his Italian sketchbook during his stay in Rome (1769-1771) give rise to and find expression both in this image and print no. 39, Great deeds! With dead bodies! (Grande hazaña! Con muertos!).
This is worse is also linked to print no. 36, Not this time either (Tampoco), since Goya establishes a comparison between these two forms of punishment, reaching the conclusion that the second is the worse of the two. There is also a connection between this print and no. 33, What more can be done? (Qué hai que hacer mas?) which may form the starting point for this work.
The aggressiveness of nature is patently and cruelly obvious in this work, in which the tree is not only a support for the act but also an instrument of torture.
The plate is stored in the National Chalcography (cat. 288).
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Goya. Drawings, Etchings and LithographsGoya. DrawingsLondon1954from June 12th to July 25th 1954cat. 60
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De grafiek van GoyaRijksmuseum RijksprentenkabinetAmsterdam1970from November 13th 1970 to January 17th 1971cat. 77
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Goya. Das Zeitalter der Revolucionen. Kunst um 1800 (1980 – 1981)Hamburger KunsthalleHamburg1980cat. 87
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Francisco de GoyaMuseo d'Arte ModernaLugano1996exhibition celebrated from September 22nd to November 17th.cat. 37
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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. 123
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Francisco Goya. Capricci, follie e disastri della guerraSan Donato Milanese2000Opere grafiche della Fondazione Antonio Mazzottacat. 117
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Goya. Opera graficaPinacoteca del Castello di San GiorgioLegnano2006exhibition celebrated from December 16th 2006 to April 1st 2007p. 69
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Goya en tiempos de guerraMuseo Nacional del PradoMadrid2008consultant editor Manuela B. Mena Marqués, from April 14th to July 13th 2008cat. 98
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Goya et la modernitéPinacothèque de ParisParís2013from October 11st 2013 to March 16th 2014cat.76
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Goya, grabadorMadridBlass S.A.1918cat. 139
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Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.OxfordBruno Cassirer1964cat. 157
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Vie et ouvre de Francisco de GoyaParísOffice du livre1970cat. 1052
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Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca NacionalMadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional1996cat. 242
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El Libro de los Desastres de la GuerraMadridMuseo del Prado2000II, pp. 76-78
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Goya. Die Kunst der FreiheitMunichVerlag C. H. Beck2000p.145, fig. 52
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Goya en tiempos de guerraMadridMuseo Nacional del Prado2008p. 37
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ParísPinacoteca de París2013p. 138
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Goya. In the Norton Simon MuseumPasadenaNorton Simon Museum2016pp. 114-151