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Y son fieras. (And they are wild beasts); from "Los Desastres de la Guerra" (Disasters of War)], plate 5, mounted in in a bound album


And they are like wild beasts
Francisco Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746–1828)
Drawn and etched about 1811-12; this set printed in 1862; whole series first published posthumously 1863

Medium/Technique Etching, burnished aquatint, and drypoint; posthumous trial proof
Dimensions Platemark: 15.8 × 21 cm (6 1/4 × 8 1/4 in.)
Sheet: 26 × 35.4 cm (10 1/4 × 13 15/16 in.)
Overall (dimensions of album): 42.5 × 34.5 × 5.5 cm (16 3/4 × 13 9/16 × 2 3/16 in.)
Credit Line Museum purchase with funds donated by Professor and Mrs. S. Lane Faison, Jr., and by exchange from the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Wheelwright
Accession Number1973.732.5
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrintsAlbums
Prints

Catalogue Raisonné Harris 125, II, 1; Delteil 0124
DescriptionRed/brown ink, no bevel.
Posthumous trial proof, with numbers, before letters of title, with aquatint burnished from edges of plate (except for slight aquatint below lower borderline, which is later removed) and other additional burnishing by Goya (H. II, 2).

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".
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 in letterpress:
LOS DESASTRES DE LA GUERRA / COLECCION DE LAMINAS / INVENTADAS Y GRABADAS AL AGUAFUERTE. / POR / DON FRANCISCO GOYA. / MADRID / 1810
The titlepage is rare or perhaps unique.
Tipped in on next two fly leaves are notes by William Stirling (1864) and Archibald Stirling (1925) on blue writing paper.
Marks Watermark: Half palmette
InscriptionsEngraved u.l.: 5; l.l. 28 (poorly printed); in graphite, u.r. inside pm: 5, below image, outside pm: y son fieras
ProvenanceCharles Blanc; bought for 20 pounds from Colnaghi, April 1863 by William Stirling, Keir (later Stirling-Maxwell); Archibald Stirling; Mr. and Mrs. Philip Hofer, Cambridge, MA; purchased thorugh R. M. Light, Boston, June 12, 1974 (original vote June 13, 1973).