Rightly or wrongly; With or without reasons (Con razon o' sin ella.), number 2 of 80; from the series The Disasters of War (Los Desastres de la Guerra)
Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes, Spanish, 1746 - 1828
after 1820
Etching, aquatint, and lavis on laid paper
4th edition, 1906, edition of 275
Image: 5 3/8 × 7 3/4 in. (13.7 × 19.7 cm)
Plate: 5 15/16 × 8 1/8 in. (15.1 × 20.7 cm)
Sheet: 9 1/4 × 12 3/8 in. (23.5 × 31.4 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Roger Arvid Anderson, Class of 1968
PR.2003.61.2
Geography
Place Made: Spain, Europe
Period
19th century
Object Name
Research Area
Not on view
Inscriptions
Inscribed, in plate, bottom center: Con razon o sin ella.; inscribed, in plate, upper left: 2; inscribed, in plate, lower left: 36
Label
In this selection of four prints from Goya’s series, the artist evokes the many emotions of war. Plate 1 features a man with haunting eyes kneeling against a dark background. His vulnerable position and distraught expression speak to the anxiety at the onset of battle. In his subsequent images, Goya presents the desolation of ravaged bodies, the fear before enemy combatants, and the resignation of survivors. Throughout the series, Goya uses a variety of techniques to create shadows that dramatize the imagery; he favored aquatint, an artistic technique that creates tonal areas through application of powered resin to the printing plate. The grisly reality of the representations—blood dripping down one man’s face—memorializes the occupation. Goya’s captions, written by the artist, offer sometimes ironic commentary, evoking emotions of pain, resignation, and sorrow.
From the 2023 exhibition Recording War: Images of Violence 1500 – 1900, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Associate Curator of Academic Programming
Course History
SPAN 31, Introduction to Hispanic Studies II: 18th and 19th Centuries, Jose del Pino, Winter 2014
SPAN 31, Introduction to Hispanic Studies II: 18th and 19th Centuries, Txetxu Aguado, Winter 2014
Anthropology 3.01, Introduction to Anthropology, Charis Ford Morrison Boke 1, Summer 2023
Studio Art 27.01/28.01/74.01, Printmaking I/II/III, Josh Dannin, Summer 2024
Exhibition History
Recording War: Images of Violence, 1500-1900, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 23-December 9, 2023.
Provenance
R.E. Lewis, Inc., Nicasio, California; sold to Roger Arvid Anderson, May 9, 1974; given to present collection, 2003.
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