Description

Los Desastres de la guerra

Desastres de la guerra (the desasters of the war) constitutes a series of 80 prints. They document the brutality and disastrous consequences of the Napoleonic invasion of Spain that lasted from 1808 until 1814. With those etchings, Goya recounts powerful and poignant scenes of savagery and suffering with cruel honesty and utter respect for the victims. The prints were published for the first time in 1863, 35 years after the death of the artist and mark the use of print as an important medium of creation and communication in Spain. Desastres de la Guerra have inspired many artists such as Pablo Picasso, Otto Dix or Dino and Jake Chapman, to name a few, and constitute an unquestionably crucial part of Goya's lifetime oeuvre.