Francisco de Goya

They do not agree (No se convienen)

Clasificación
They do not agree (No se convienen)
Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1810 - 1812
Dimensiones
143x213 mm
Técnica y soporte
Etching, burin, drypoint and burnisher
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Undisputed work
Ficha: realización/revisión
30 Nov 2010 / 02 Jun 2023
Inventario
225
Inscripciones

Goya (bottom centre and to the left), 17 (lower left-hand corner).

Historia

See Sad presentiments of what must come to pass.

In the second state proof for this print burin was used to retouch those patches where the etching had not bitten successfully.

The title was handwritten by Goya on the first and only print run that we know to have been made at the time, and which the painter gave to his friend Agustín Ceán Bermúdez. The title was engraved on to the copperplate at a later date, and no other modifications were made to the image for the first edition of the Disasters of War, which was printed by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Madrid, in 1863.

When the first print run was made, this image was included after no. 76, The carnivorous vulture, after the number was read incorrectly. Similarly, etching no. 77, The rope is breaking, was mistaken for number 17. For this reason, that number has been engraved both in the upper right- and left-hand corners.

No preparatory drawings for this print have been conserved.

Análisis artístico

Two officers (it is not clear whether they are Spanish or French) on horseback, positioned on the left-hand side of the print, are discussing the subsequent movements of their troops. They appear to be in disagreement about what tactics to use next. At the same time, on the right-hand side of the image, a bloody battle is underway. Nothing disturbs the argument between the two officers, not even the corpses lying beside them or the suffering and sacrifice of those in the middle of the fight.

The scene is divided diagonally into two parts. The left-hand side, where the commanding officers are, is dark and has been executed using short, very tightly packed horizontal lines. The horse in the foreground, the calmest figure in the whole scene, looks out, apparently perplexed, at the viewer. Its body has been rendered in energetic, criss-crossing diagonal strokes. On the right-hand side of the composition, set apart by the diagonal line, we see the white surface of the paper and, standing out against this pale background, the silhouettes of the men engaged in battle.

This etching is an obvious critique of the way in which people are manipulated in every military conflict, in which they become a mere weapon to be wielded by those in power. This idea holds as much for the French as it does for the Spanish, which is possibly why Goya has chosen not to identify the arguing figures.

Conservación

La plancha se halla en la Calcografía Nacional (cat. 268)

Exposiciones
  • De grafiek van Goya
    Rijksmuseum Rijksprentenkabinet
    Amsterdam
    1970
    from November 13th 1970 to January 17th 1971
  • Francisco de Goya
    Museo d'Arte Moderna
    Lugano
    1996
    exhibition celebrated from September 22nd to November 17th.
  • Francisco Goya. Sein leben im spiegel der graphik. Fuendetodos 1746-1828 Bordeaux. 1746-1996
    Galerie Kornfeld
    Bern
    1996
    from November 21st 1996 to January 1997
  • Ydioma universal: Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    Biblioteca Nacional
    Madrid
    1996
    from September 19th to December 15th 1996
  • Goya. Opera grafica
    Pinacoteca del Castello di San Giorgio
    Legnano
    2006
    exhibition celebrated from December 16th 2006 to April 1st 2007
  • Goya et la modernité
    Pinacothèque de Paris
    París
    2013
    from October 11st 2013 to March 16th 2014
  • Goya: Order and disorder
    Museum of Fine Arts
    Boston
    2014
Bibliografía
  • BERUETE Y MONET, Aureliano de
    Goya, grabador
    MadridBlass S.A.
    1918
    cat. 119
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    cat. 137
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    cat. 1019
  • SANTIAGO, Elena M. (coordinadora)
    Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    MadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional
    1996
    cat. 211
  • OROPESA, Marisa and RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wilfredo
    ParísPinacoteca de París
    2013
    p. 128
  • ILCHMAN, Frederick y STEPANEK, Stephanie L. (comisarios)
    Goya: Order & Disorder
    BostonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston Publications
    2014
    p. 290
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 114-151
Enlaces externos
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