From the beginning of the War in 1808 until about 1820, Goya worked on the present 80 prints. Rather than depicting heroic soldiers and scenes of glorious battle, Goya produced stark, sobering images of brutality, slaughter and misery. The present images expose the horror of war, from the ferocity of village fighting (plates 2–27) to the terrible famine that ravaged Madrid in 1811–12, claiming 20,000 lives (plates 48–64). In the “caprichos emphaticos” (plates 65–80) the artist comments on the war's political, religious, and ideological aspects and ramifications.

“Los Desastres de la Guerra” were not published during Goya's lifetime, possibly because he feared that some of the prints were politically dangerous or, perhaps, because he knew that the nation was too tired of war to be responsive. The prints finally appeared in 1863, revealing a theme that would continue to be expressed in the art of the twentieth century. Thomas Harris praises the edition and concludes that this impression is even better than the third edition.

The edition was limited to 275 copies.

Mentioned and illustrated in: Thomas Harris, “Engravings and Lithographs by Thomas Harris”, London 1964, volume II, p. 175 + 368–369.