The print shows one of the atrocities that Goya witnessed as the Napoleonic troops rampaged through Spain.

He chose not to illustrate the major battles, but recorded the anonymous violent incidents suffered by the Spanish people at the hands of French troops or Spanish traitors. This proof shows an earlier trial state before Goya renumbered the series, with the tonal medium of lavis still not cleaned from the margin.

Provenance

Private collection; Sotheby's, 2003; Frederick Mulder.


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