- Cronología
- Ca. 1810 - 1812
- Dimensiones
- 177 x 220 mm
- Técnica y soporte
- Etching, aquatint, burin, drypoint and burnisher
- Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
- Undisputed work
- Ficha: realización/revisión
- 06 Dec 2010 / 28 Oct 2022
- Inventario
- 225
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 in Madrid.
An afrancesado or perhaps a French soldier is being beaten before the enthusiastic and rather indifferent gaze of a crowd of people, including a priest wearing a saturn hat. The victim's feet are tied together and the upper part of his body is exposed. A man and woman are giving their victim a brutal beating, the woman beating him with a rod while the man uses a half moon or crescent staff, a tool used to cut the tendons of bulls. The posture of the body of the man under attack makes it look like they are actually beating a dead body.
The exultant mob that vents its fury against the enemy, who in this case may already be dead, is the same crowd that often faced up to the French invaders in an improvised, risky stand with the brutality that Goya captures in this print. The painter's critical attitude towards this type of popular, extremely violent action is shown in the faces of the protagonists. The man using the half moon has a faraway look, a lost expression as if he were motivated by an irrational impulse. The artist also criticises the inaction of the crowd, which is perhaps so accustomed to witnessing this kind of scene that they no longer feel disgusted or repelled.
This print may have links to the death of the Marquis of Perales, a young aristocrat who was unjustly accused of supporting Joseph Bonaparte (Corte, 1768 - Florence, 1844). However, it is also possible that we are before a generic scene, since this kind of violent event must have been very common in times of war.
Mob is closely linked to the following print, He Deserved It,in which Goya once again depicts a violent scene peopled by a raving crowd.
The plate is stored in the National Chalcography (cat. 279)
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Francisco de GoyaMuseo d'Arte ModernaLugano1996exhibition celebrated from September 22nd to November 17th.cat. 28
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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. 151
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Francisco Goya. Capricci, follie e disastri della guerraSan Donato Milanese2000Opere grafiche della Fondazione Antonio Mazzottacat. 108
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Goya. La imagen de la mujerMuseo Nacional del PradoMadrid2001from October 30th 2001 to February 10th 2002. Exhibitied also at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, March 10th to June 2nd 2002, consultant editor Francisco Calvo Serrallercat. 111
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Goya. Opera graficaPinacoteca del Castello di San GiorgioLegnano2006exhibition celebrated from December 16th 2006 to April 1st 2007p. 65
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Goya en tiempos de guerraMuseo Nacional del PradoMadrid2008consultant editor Manuela B. Mena Marqués, from April 14th to July 13th 2008cat. 100
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Goya et la modernitéPinacothèque de ParisParís2013from October 11st 2013 to March 16th 2014cat.67
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2022
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Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.OxfordBruno Cassirer1964cat. 148
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Goya. Arte e condizione umanaNaplesLiguori editore1990lam. 200
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Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca NacionalMadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional1996cat. 230
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ParísPinacoteca de París2013p. 133
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Museo de Bellas Artes de Badajoz y Diputación de Badajoz2022p. 64
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