Sanos y Enfermos (The Healthy and the sick) plate 57 from "Los Desastre de la Guerra"

 

Francisco Goya

  1746 - 1828 (biography)

c. 1812 -15; 1st edition printed 1863 

etching, aquatint, drypoint, lavis, engraving, burnishing 

6 1/8 x 8 1/4" platemark 

unsigned, as is usual 

from first edition of 80 

title engraved below image, "57" in upper left, within the platemark. 

D.176, H.177 

ivory wove with partial JGO and palmette watermark 

State iii/iii, first published edition 

Academia Nobles Artes de San Fernando 

ANFO109 

$3,000.00 

Goya worked on the 82 plates for the Disasters of War between 1810 and 1820 and were somewhat divided into 3 groups: plates 1 - 47; the war between Spain and Napolean's France and its effects; plates 48 through 65 showing the results of the famine in Madrid, which were done between 1811-12. The third group, plates 66-82 a group of anticlerical etchings reflecting the bitter disappointment of liberals when the restored Bourbon monarchy, encouraged by the Catholic hierarchy, rejected the Spanish Constitution of 1812 and opposed both state and religious reform. Although deeply affected by the war, Goya kept his thoughts private regarding the art he produced in response to the conflict and its aftermath. He was in poor health and almost deaf when, at 62, he began work on the prints. The 'Disasters of War' was not published until 1863, 35 years after his death. Seven editions were published beteen 1863 and 1937. This excellent impression is plate 57 from the third state, the rare first published printing of 80, done in 1863 on a heavy wove paper with a partial JGO and plamette watermark. The Disasters of War remains one of the most potent anti war statements ever made. This, plate 57, translates to English as The Sound and the Sick, and needs no explanation.