Advanced Search 
This extraordinary image captures the horror inflicted in Zaragoza, Goya’s native city, by the explosion of a powder magazine. Goya’s radically imaginative conception, with falling bodies and furniture, long predates stop-motion photography. The Disasters of War were not published in Goya’s lifetime, so "working" proofs like this provide valuable testimony about Goya’s original intentions. Unfortunately, a later, prudish collector has partly masked the vulnerable nakedness of the falling woman by adding touches of gray ink on her breast and thighs.
Estragos de la Guerra. (Ravages of War); Fatales consequencias de la sangrienta guerra en España con Buonaparte. Y otros caprichos enfaticos [Disasters of War], plate 30.
Francisco Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746–1828)
about 1811-12
Medium/Technique
Etching, drypoint, burin, lavis (direct etching), and burnishing, on laid paper; working proof, touched with gray ink.
Dimensions
Platemark: 14.1 x 17 cm (5 9/16 x 6 11/16 in.)
Sheet: 19.2 x 25.2 cm (7 9/16 x 9 15/16 in.)
Sheet: 19.2 x 25.2 cm (7 9/16 x 9 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated by Jeptha H. Wade and M. and M. Karolik Fund
Accession Number1973.727
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope, Prints and Drawings
ClassificationsPrints
This extraordinary image captures the horror inflicted in Zaragoza, Goya’s native city, by the explosion of a powder magazine. Goya’s radically imaginative conception, with falling bodies and furniture, long predates stop-motion photography. The Disasters of War were not published in Goya’s lifetime, so "working" proofs like this provide valuable testimony about Goya’s original intentions. Unfortunately, a later, prudish collector has partly masked the vulnerable nakedness of the falling woman by adding touches of gray ink on her breast and thighs.
Catalogue Raisonné
Harris 150, I, 1; Delteil 0149; Gassier & Wilson 1044
DescriptionWorking proof, before numbers, title, touched with gray ink (H. I, 1).
Before title and numbers in plate as follows: L.l.: Goya (etched), u.l. engraved: 30, l.l. engraved 21; posthumously engraved: Estragos de la guerra
Before title and numbers in plate as follows: L.l.: Goya (etched), u.l. engraved: 30, l.l. engraved 21; posthumously engraved: Estragos de la guerra
Marks
Verso: MFA Stamp in brown ink (Lugt 282) with accession number in graphite.
ProvenanceDon Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón [b. 1811- d. 1875), probably by descent, to his son; Don Alfonso de Borbón (b. 1866 - d. 1934). Georges Provôt sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, April 10, 1935, lot 59; Maurice Gobin (b. 1883), Paris dealer; June 1935 Philip Hofer (b. 1898–d. 1984) and his wife, Frances L. Hofer (b. 1908–d. 1978), Cambridge, MA; 1974, sold by Mr. and Mrs. Hofer, through R. M. Light, dealer (b. 1929 - d. 2016), Boston and Santa Barbara, CA, to the MFA. (original vote June 13, 1973)
Note: source: Philip Hofer's annotated copy of the Provôt sale in MFA library.
Note: source: Philip Hofer's annotated copy of the Provôt sale in MFA library.