Plate 44 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'I saw it' (Yo lo vi)

Art Historical Context

Francisco de Goya y Luc, a pioneering Spanish artist of the late 18th and early th centuries, created *Plate 44: 'I saw it' (Yo lo vi)* in 1810 as part of his monumental series *The Disasters of War*Los Desastres de la). This etching captures the raw horrors of the Peninsular War (18081814), Spain's brutal fight for independence against Napoleon's invading French forces. Goya, who witnessed the atrocities firsthand, used the stark title—"I saw it"—to underscore his role as an unflinching eyewitness to war's inhumanity, blending Romantic intensity with emerging realism. Printed in etching, drypoint, and burin on a modest plate (6 1/4 × 9 3/16 in.), the work's intricate techniques allowed Goya to convey visceral emotion: etching for bold outlines, drypoint for velvety textures evoking blood and flesh, and burin for sharp, precise details. Tags like fear, children, men, and women hint at a nightmarish scene of civilian suffering, amplifying the series' condemnation of violence against the innocent. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1932), this print remains a cultural touchstone. Goya's series, unpublished until 1863, influenced modern war art—from Picasso's *Guernica* to photojournalism—reminding us that true disasters strip away humanity, one eyewitness account at a time.

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 ...