Con razon o' sin ella. (Rightly or wrongly; With or without reasons)

Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes, Spanish, 1746 - 1828

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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

Portfolio / Series Title

Number 2 of 80 from Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War)

Geography

Place Made: Spain, Europe

Period

19th century

Object Name

Print

Research Area

Print

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 2023

Facilitated Experience: Special Tour - From Goya to Photojournalism, Summer 2023

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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Subject

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