Nothing. We shall see. (Nada. Ello dira.), number 69 of 80; from the series The Disasters of War (Los Desastres de la Guerra)
Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes, Spanish, 1746 - 1828
1810-1820
Etching, aquatint, lavis, scraping and burnishing on paper
First edition, made prior to all corrections
Plate: 6 1/8 × 7 7/8 in. (15.5 × 20 cm)
Sheet: 9 5/8 × 12 7/8 in. (24.4 × 32.7 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Adolph Weil Jr., Class of 1935
PR.991.50.1.69
Publisher
Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Madrid, Spain
Geography
Place Made: Spain, Europe
Period
19th century
Object Name
Research Area
Not on view
Inscriptions
Inscribed, in plate, lower center: Nada. Ello dira.; inscribed, in plate, lower left: 96; inscribed, in graphite, upper right: 69 Watermark: HGO/Palmette
Label
The last few plates in Goya’s extended representations of war point to the post-conflict future. These final works take on mystical dimensions, capturing complex feelings in allegorical imagery, as opposed to the seemingly documentary prints of the beginning the series. Number 69 features a skeletal figure, its hand grasping a sign reading “Nothing.” The darkness of the image suggests the bleak finality of war. Number 80 offers a somewhat counter image: against a darkened background, a woman lies on the ground, rays of light emanating from her head. In the shadows, figures—some human, some animal—peer at her, while one figure in the foreground raises a club in one hand. In this etching, the woman may represent truth. Whether she will rise again, however, remains unanswered.
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
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
Death and Dying: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Anthropology 55, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 11-March 26, 1995.
Fatal Consequences: Callot, Goya, and the Horrors of Wars, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 8-December 9, 1990.
Recording War: Images of Violence, 1500-1900, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 20-August 20, 2023.
Publication History
Timothy Rub, Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, Kelly Pask, "A Gift to the College: The Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Weil Jr. Collection of Master Prints", Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1998, listed, p.100, no. 170.
Hilliard T. Goldfarb and Reva Wolf, Fatal Consequences: Callot, Goya, and the Horrors of War, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1990.
Provenance
Date unknown, in the collection of Felix Somary (1881-1956), Vienna and Zurich; sold Sotheby's, New York, May 3, 1978, lot 2; purchased by Adolph Weil, Jr., Montgomery, Alabama; 1991 given to Dartmouth College by Adolph Weil, Jr., Class of 1935.
Catalogue Raisonne
Delteil 188; Harris 189
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