Francisco de Goya (1746-1828) after - Los Desastres de la Guerra, Blatt #81 : Fiero Monstruo!

Francisco de GOYA (1746-1828)
The Disasters of War, Blatt # 81: Fierce Monster!
Etching, Aquatint
Sheet size: 305 mm x 295 mm
Image size: 190 mm x 152 mm
see Harris I, 121-200; Delteil 120-199
A sheet of the edition in copperplate printing, published by Hugo Kehrer in the H. Schmidt Munich publishing house, 1921.
in excellent quality on Velin paper (not heliography).
Total print run: 500. This is copy number 202.
Proof of origin (depicted text) of the etching will be sent as a copy with the shipment.
Goya handed over 82 proof prints of the series to his friend Cean Bermudez in 1824. However, only after his death.
Starting from 1854, the plates were sold individually by his grandson Mariano to the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. There, in 1863, initially 80 sheets of the 'Desastres' were published. Through the Goya researcher Paul Lefort, sheets #81 and #82 came into the possession of the Academy in 1870, and thus were not part of the first edition.
Page #81: The intricately detailed dog appears as a summary of all the cruelties depicted by Goya in his series on the war events in Madrid and Zaragoza. War is portrayed as a fierce dog, whose overwhelming size diminishes human lives to mere chances—and renders them meaningless.