What Courage!, plate seven from The Disasters of War
1810/12, published 1863
Medium
Etching, aquatint, drypoint, burin, and burnishing on ivory wove paper with gilt edges
Dimensions
Image: 13.7 × 18.7 cm (5 7/16 × 7 3/8 in.); Plate: 15.3 × 20.5 cm (6 1/16 × 8 1/8 in.); Sheet: 24 × 33.9 cm (9 1/2 × 13 3/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
124845
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Francisco de Goya responded to the Peninsular War (1808–11) by creating over 80 etchings critiquing the cruelty and senseless violence that accompanies war. In this print, he depicted a historical event: Augustina of Aragon heroically defending Saragossa, taking over the cannon of her fallen comrades. Because she had already become a woman of legendary status when this print was made, Goya did not show Augustina’s face. Due to the oppressive policies of King Ferdinand VII, these prints were not ...
About the Artist
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes · 1746–1828
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was born on March 30, 1746, in the small Aragonese village of Fuendetodos, Spain, to José Benito de Goya, a master gilder, and Gracia de Lucientes. The fourth of six children in a modest lower-middle-class family, Goya received a basic education before beginning his artistic training at age 14 under the local painter José Luzán y Martínez in Zaragoza, where he sp...