Details
GOYA Y LUCIENTES, Francisco de (1746-1828). Los Desastres de la Guerra. Madrid: [The Calcografía for] La Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, 1892 [plates ca. 1903].
Oblong 2° (236 x 340mm). Letterpress title (dated 1892) and 1 leaf of boigraphical introduction, 80 ETCHINGS WITH BURNISHED AQUATINT, DRYPOINT AND ENGRAVING BY GOYA, on wove paper, on guards. (Title and text leaf slightly browned.) Modern brown morocco, spine in six compartments, lettered in gilt in one.
Although the title page to this volume is from the second edition of the Desastres, the wove paper suggests that the plates themselves are from the third. Both editions were limited to 100 copies. This series of engravings was partially inspired by incidents which Goya witnessed during the Peninsula War of 1808-14, and the famine in Madrid in 1811-12. No edition of the copperplates was published during Goya's lifetime, although Goya probably finished the engravings around 1820. Harris suggests that the expense, as well as the repressive regime of the day and Goya's ill health, were responsible for the postponement of publication. When Goya left Spain to settle permanently in France, his son Javier stored the plates in safes, where they remained until Javier's own death in 1854. They were finally acquired by the Academia de San Fernando in 1862, and the first edition was published the following year. Harris I, p.138-171 and II, pp.172-303, nos. 121-203.
Oblong 2° (236 x 340mm). Letterpress title (dated 1892) and 1 leaf of boigraphical introduction, 80 ETCHINGS WITH BURNISHED AQUATINT, DRYPOINT AND ENGRAVING BY GOYA, on wove paper, on guards. (Title and text leaf slightly browned.) Modern brown morocco, spine in six compartments, lettered in gilt in one.
Although the title page to this volume is from the second edition of the Desastres, the wove paper suggests that the plates themselves are from the third. Both editions were limited to 100 copies. This series of engravings was partially inspired by incidents which Goya witnessed during the Peninsula War of 1808-14, and the famine in Madrid in 1811-12. No edition of the copperplates was published during Goya's lifetime, although Goya probably finished the engravings around 1820. Harris suggests that the expense, as well as the repressive regime of the day and Goya's ill health, were responsible for the postponement of publication. When Goya left Spain to settle permanently in France, his son Javier stored the plates in safes, where they remained until Javier's own death in 1854. They were finally acquired by the Academia de San Fernando in 1862, and the first edition was published the following year. Harris I, p.138-171 and II, pp.172-303, nos. 121-203.