Plate1 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'Sad foreboding of what is going to happen' (Tristes presentimientos de lo que ha de acontecer)

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) Spanish

ca. 1815 (published 1863)

Not on view

Although this is the first print in the Disasters, its subject and style of etching relate it to the last eighteen plates, known as the caprichos enfáticos. Goya might have decided to open the series with it to hint at the depictions of violence that would follow. The ragged, emaciated man embodies the fears before the war, when Napoleon’s invasion seemed inevitable. Goya’s treatment of the surface adds a layer of meaning: the advancing fog of dark ink poised to engulf the individual may allude to the impending tragedies. The kneeling man who gazes toward the heavens was inspired by models of sainthood. The clearest association is Christ in the garden of Gethsemane.