The Desastres de la Guerra are drawings Goya made to prepare for 80 prints that bore the same title. Printing is the technique used to make a mark on the paper. Goya traced these drawings onto a metal plate, then scratched out the image following the lines, filled the lines with ink and pressed it against the paper, leaving the printed image. The final drawing is called an engraving. For that reason they are drawn in sanguine. Goya used this colour to create preparatory sketches for his engravings, because it was the best colour for tracing images on to the metal plate.

Here, Goya speaks to us of the terrible things human beings do to one another in times of war. He was speaking about that specific war, but his drawings hold true for all wars, because all wars are cruel, regardless of which side you look at. It’s been 200 years since Goya created these drawings, and yet they could have been done today.

Goya did not like war one little bit and he disagreed with the way both sides treated people.

That is why he depicted it in his drawings, to protest against it.