Francisco de Goya

Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1812 - 1815
Dimensiones
157 x 209 mm
Técnica y soporte
Aguafuerte, aguatinta, lavis, punta seca y bruñidor
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Undisputed work
Ficha: realización/revisión
08 Dec 2010 / 24 May 2023
Inventario
225
Inscripciones

49 (on the lower left-hand corner).

Historia

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.

Análisis artístico

In the middle of a natural setting a man is being subjected to brutal torture. Two French soldiers are holding the legs of a Spanish man they have taken prisoner whose head has been tied to a tree with a rope. The rope is taught, squeezing tight around the neck of the prisoner. His eyes are closed, his mouth open. The figure seems to be screaming in pain, his hair standing on end from the unbearable physical suffering. One soldier pushes his foot into the prisoner's back to ensure that the rope is tight enough to asphyxiate him.

This image continues the theme represented in the previous print, no. 31, That's tough! (Fuerte cosa es), in which a solider pulls on the feet of a hanged man to hasten his death or make sure that he is already dead. The two scenes are equally cruel, depicting torture meted out without pity.

The title of this print poses a question, Why?, asking what is the sense or reason behind such a level of suffering. The question is carried over into the next print, no. 33, What more can be done? (Qué hai que hacer mas?). Goya reiterates his inability to understand the events he depicts, answering his own question in print no. 35 in which he admits that One can't tell why (No se puede saber por qué).

Nature is complicit in this torture: the trunk of the tree, which has a burned, dry appearance, provides a support for this atrocious act of violence.

Conservación

The plate is stored in the National Chalcography (cat. 283).

Exposiciones
  • Goya. Drawings, Etchings and Lithographs
    Goya. Drawings
    London
    1954
    from June 12th to July 25th 1954
  • 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
  • Francisco Goya. Capricci, follie e disastri della guerra
    San Donato Milanese
    2000
    Opere grafiche della Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta
  • 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. 134
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    cat. 152
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    cat. 1047
  • SANTIAGO, Elena M. (coordinadora)
    Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    MadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional
    1996
    cat. 236
  • OROPESA, Marisa and RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wilfredo
    ParísPinacoteca de París
    2013
    p. 135
  • ILCHMAN, Frederick y STEPANEK, Stephanie L. (comisarios)
    Goya: Order & Disorder
    BostonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston Publications
    2014
    p. 292
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 114-151
Enlaces externos
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