
1815–1820
One of Goya’s most devastating print projects, The Disasters of War remained unpublished until decades after the artist’s death. The 82 prints in the series demonstrate his outrage at the havoc and torture wreaked on the common people in the wake of the Peninsular War, fought between Napoleon’s French Empire and Spain (1808-14). No one is safe, whether male, female, young, or old. Even the sanctity of religion becomes meaningless as statues of the Virgin Mary are carried off as plunder.