Francisco Goya’s series “The Disasters of War” contains 82 plates in its complete form.
Goya created the etchings and related prints between about 1810 and 1820, during and after the Peninsular War. Rather than presenting heroic battlefield victories, the series shows executions, mutilation, famine, grief and political repression. Its subjects reflect the violence of the 1808 uprising, the war against Napoleonic France and the troubled aftermath.
The number 82 refers to the complete series preserved in Goya’s proof album. A common source of confusion is the first published edition of 1863, which contained only 80 prints because two plates were unavailable. Thus, “80” describes an early published edition, not the full series.
The title used today was not Goya’s own wording. His handwritten album title referred to the fatal consequences of Spain’s bloody war with Bonaparte and other emphatic caprices. The 82 plates are commonly grouped into war scenes, images of Madrid’s famine and later political allegories.