Plate 11 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): Not even in that way (Ni por esas)

Art Historical Context

**Plate 11: *Not even in that Way (Ni por esas)* Francisco Goya's *The Disasters of War*** Created around 1810 amid the horrors of the Peninsular War (1808–1814), this etching captures Francisco Goya's raw response to Napoleon's invasion of Spain and the Spanish people's fierce resistance. Part of an 82-print series, *Los Desastres de la Guerra unflinchingly documents atrocities, famine, and human suffering. In this plate, titled "Not even in that," Goya depicts a defiant scene involving women, infants, and men—likely a mother shielding her child from soldiers' brutality—symbolizing unyielding Spanish spirit despite unimaginable violence. The work's stark title underscores refusal to submit, even under extreme duress. Goya, a Romantic master and court painter turned social critic, employed innovative printmaking techniques: etching for precise lines, lavis (a toned wash) for moody shadows, drypoint for expressive burrs, and burin for sharp details. These created a visceral, almost photographic intensity in the small 6 5/16 × 8 5/16 in. plate, allowing broad dissemination when published posthumously in 1863. Though censored in Goya's lifetime, the series profoundly influenced modern war art, from Picasso's *Guernica* to contemporary reportage, reminding us of war's toll on the innocent. *(On view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, gift of Mrs. Grafton H. Pyne, 1951.)*

About the Artist

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) · 1746–1828

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) was a Spanish painter and printmaker considered the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Rising from modest provincial origins to become First Court Painter to Charles IV, Goya's career spanned the Enlightenment's optimism and the brutal Napoleonic invasion that shattered it. A mysterious illness in 1793 left him permanently deaf and ...