Francisco de Goya’s etching, “And They Are Like Wild Beasts”, 1814–15

Francisco de Goya (aka Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes) (1746–1828)

“And They Are Like Wild Beasts” (aka “Y son fieras” [title inscribed in plate]); “Et elles sont comme des bêtes féroces”), 1814–15. plate 5 from the series of eighty plates, “The Disasters of War”, possibly printed by the workshop of Laurenciano Potenciano and published by Real Academia de Nobles Artes de San Fernando in Madrid in 1863 in “Los Desastres de la Guerra: Coleccion de ochenta láminas inventadas y grabadas al agua fuerte por Don Francisco Goya” (see https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/book/los-desastres-de-la-guerra-coleccion-de-ochenta-laminas-inventadas-y & https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/y-son-fieras).  

Etching with burnished aquatint and drypoint on laid paper printed in a warm black ink on cream laid paper with wide margins.

Size: (sheet) 23.5 x 31 cm; (plate) 15.3 x 20.5 cm; (image borderline) 13.5 x 18 cm.

Numbered and lettered in plate outside the image borderline: (upper left corner) “5”; (lower centre) “Y son fieras”. 

State iv (of iv) with the addition of the title and the edges of the printing plate bevelled.

Delteil 124 (Loys Delteil 1906, “Le Peintre-Graveur Illustré: (XIXe et XXe siècles)”, vol. 15, Paris, Chez lauteurp, cat. no. 124 [see https://archive.org/details/lepeintregraveur1415delt/page/n197/mode/2up]); Harris 125 (Tomás Harris 1964, “Goya: Engravings and Lithographs”, vol. I [text and Illustrations], vol. II [catalogue raisonné], Oxford).

The British Museum offers a description of this print: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1975-1025-421-7.

See also the wonderful background insights regarding this print provided by Eleanor A. Sayre (1974) in “The Changing Image: Prints by Francisco Goya”, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (exh. cat.): “This print is one of several depicting brave Spanish women, and the title is related to that of the print that precedes it in the series, “Las mugeres dan valor” (The women give courage)” (p. 131). Towards the end of the explanatory background account, Sayre draws attention to the plight of the Spanish women with the following poignant quote from Robert Southey’s (1823) “History of the Peninsular War”, London: “During the [second] siege six hundred women and children perished, not by bombardment and the mines, but in action, by the sword, or bayonet or bullet” (vol. 2, p. 150).

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression with wide margins in an excellent/near pristine condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains, foxing or signs of handling.

I am selling this grim and graphically powerful etching from Goya’s famous series, “The Disasters of War”, showing women in the front line of battle attacking soldiers by hurling rocks and using pikes against infantry men armed with rifles and cutlasses, for the total cost of AU$698 (currently US$460.53/EUR416.69/GBP366.80 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this creatively inventive masterwork, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold