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Whether right or wrong
With or without cause
With or WIthout Justification
Requires Photography
Con razon ó sin ella. (Rightly or wrongly); from Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War). plate 2, mounted in a bound album
Whether right or wrong
With or without cause
With or WIthout Justification
Francisco Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746–1828)
Drawn and etched about 1811- 12; this set printed about 1862; whole series first published posthumously 1863
Medium/Technique
Etching, lavis (direct etching) over sand or salt aquatint, drypoint, scraping, and burnishing; posthumous trial proof, mounted in a bound album
Dimensions
Platemark: 15 × 29.9 cm (5 7/8 × 11 3/4 in.)
Sheet: 25.5 × 35.5 cm (10 1/16 × 14 in.)
Overall dimensins of bound volume: 42.5 × 34.5 × 5 cm (16 3/4 × 13 9/16 × 1 15/16 in.)
Sheet: 25.5 × 35.5 cm (10 1/16 × 14 in.)
Overall dimensins of bound volume: 42.5 × 34.5 × 5 cm (16 3/4 × 13 9/16 × 1 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated by Robert Storr and by exchange from the bequest of William Perkins Babcock
Accession Number1973.732.2
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope, Prints and Drawings
Catalogue Raisonné
Harris 122, II, 1; Delteil 0121
Description
Red/ Brown ink, plate tone, no bevel
Posthumous trial proof, with final number, with burin and additional drypoint, before letters of title and before borderline (H. 122, II, 1).
With additional burin and drypoint on the figures by Goya (as described by Harris (H. I, 3)
Before engraved borderline. The image has been made rectangular with plate tone, but not apparently masked.
Etched lines, some of which were hollow in working proof (51.1623), print solid here.
Mounted in an album of posthumous trial proofs, printed 1862; bound in brown marbled (?) calf with gold letters and decoration.
Album: 42.5 x 34.5 x 5.5 cm.
On spine: "LOS/ DESASTRES/ DE/ LA GUERRA/ POR/ F. GOYA" and below, "MADRID/ 1810". On front cover: Decorative cartouche with the letters: C A N C F O R W A R D. On back cover: Gold decoration of interwoven circles with Latin mottos (?), surrounded by "NON · MORTALE · QUOD · OPTO". 42.5 x 34.5 x 5.5 cm.
The album sheets are red tipped. The album paper is cream wove. Each album sheet: 32.5 x 41.2 cm.
Inside front cover is large bookplate of William Stirling, the sticker of Frances Hofer and various cataloguing notes in graphite that continue onto first flyleaf (the notes are by P. Hofer and E. A. Sayre and others).
Title page, printed:
LOS DESASTRES DE LA GUERRA / COLECCION DE LAMINAS / INVENTADAS Y GRABADAS AL AGUAFUERTE. / POR / DON FRANCISCO GOYA. / MADRID / 1810
This titlepage is rare, and perhaps unique
Tipped in on next two fly leaves are notes by William Stirling (1864) and Archibald Stirling (1925) on blue writing paper.
Red/ Brown ink, plate tone, no bevel
Posthumous trial proof, with final number, with burin and additional drypoint, before letters of title and before borderline (H. 122, II, 1).
With additional burin and drypoint on the figures by Goya (as described by Harris (H. I, 3)
Before engraved borderline. The image has been made rectangular with plate tone, but not apparently masked.
Etched lines, some of which were hollow in working proof (51.1623), print solid here.
Mounted in an album of posthumous trial proofs, printed 1862; bound in brown marbled (?) calf with gold letters and decoration.
Album: 42.5 x 34.5 x 5.5 cm.
On spine: "LOS/ DESASTRES/ DE/ LA GUERRA/ POR/ F. GOYA" and below, "MADRID/ 1810". On front cover: Decorative cartouche with the letters: C A N C F O R W A R D. On back cover: Gold decoration of interwoven circles with Latin mottos (?), surrounded by "NON · MORTALE · QUOD · OPTO". 42.5 x 34.5 x 5.5 cm.
The album sheets are red tipped. The album paper is cream wove. Each album sheet: 32.5 x 41.2 cm.
Inside front cover is large bookplate of William Stirling, the sticker of Frances Hofer and various cataloguing notes in graphite that continue onto first flyleaf (the notes are by P. Hofer and E. A. Sayre and others).
Title page, printed:
LOS DESASTRES DE LA GUERRA / COLECCION DE LAMINAS / INVENTADAS Y GRABADAS AL AGUAFUERTE. / POR / DON FRANCISCO GOYA. / MADRID / 1810
This titlepage is rare, and perhaps unique
Tipped in on next two fly leaves are notes by William Stirling (1864) and Archibald Stirling (1925) on blue writing paper.
Marks
No watermark
InscriptionsEngraved l.l: 36, u.l.: 2; in graphite u.r. within pm.: 2, below image, outside pm.: Con razon ó sin ella.
Various later cataloguing inscriptions in graphite on mount; some ascribed to Campbell Dodgson.
Various later cataloguing inscriptions in graphite on mount; some ascribed to Campbell Dodgson.
ProvenanceCharles Blanc; bought for 20 pounds from Colnaghi (or Christie's ), April 1863 by William Stirling, Keir (later Stirling-Maxwell); Archibald Stirling; Mr. and Mrs. Philip Hofer, Cambridge, MA; purchased through R. M. Light, Boston, June 12, 1974 (original vote June 13, 1973).