Que Valor!

Item

Picture Rights
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Print Title
Que Valor!
Accession Number
1949.12.7
Artist
Francisco Lucientes, Francisco Jose de, 1746 - 1828
Date Created
1863
Edition
1st
Print/Plate Number
7
Description
The print Que Valor! is Plate 7 in Goya’s Desastres de la Guerra series. The print centers on a woman manning a large cannon. The woman is the focal point of the piece, wearing a white dress that stands out from most of the rest of the print, being rendered in a clearer white than the rest of the image. From the middle of her back up, the woman is rendered in a darker - gray to black tone. This tonal shift differs from the other figures present in the piece, and in Goya’s larger work. The woman is now made somewhat anonymous, her face obscured by the tone in which she is etched, and that her face is turned away from the audience. Her arm is the other unobscured part of her body, and we can see it light the cannon in preparation for it to fire. The cannon is rendered in darker tones, with the wheels appearing in the darkest. The barrel of the cannon, to the left of the wheels, is a bright white, with the underside in shadow. The bright white of the barrel is comparable to the white of the woman’s dress. While most of Goya’s prints do not focus on any specific event or person, this may be one of the few that does. The woman in question may be Augustina de Aragon, who was a folk heroic figure who defended Spain against Napoleonic forces.
Edition Provenance
The print was originally acquired by the Cincinnati Art Museum in 1949, as a gift of the donor Emily Poole. The prints were originally owned by Alan C. Poole, the brother of Emily Poole, and the prints were donated as Emily was in charge of Alan’s estate. The prints originally came bound in a book, and were unbound from the book in 1960, by workers at the Cincinnati Art Museum. The prints are known to be first edition, which were printed in the workshop of Laurenciano Potenciano for the Real Academia in Madrid and completed in March 1863. The gap between when the print was printed, and when it was obtained by Alan Poole is unknown, and is unlikely to be resolved, as those knowledgeable with the estate of Alan Poole have passed away.
Condition
For shorthand, the print will be split into 9 sections, going from Top (T), Center (C) , Bottom (B), and Left (L), center (C) , Right (R) . There is a very evident plate mark surrounding the image. There are also indications of the print being bound into a book, with the left side having these indications. Some of the binding material remains adhered to the back of the left edge of the print as well. There are some stray ink marks on the corners of the plate mark, outside the image area.
Holding Institution
Cincinnati Art Museum
Owned By
Cincinnati Art Museum (Cincinnati, Ohio; United States). (1949 - Present)
Alan C. Poole, donated by Emily Poole. (Cincinnati, Ohio; United States). (Unknown - 1949).
Workshop of Laurenciano Potenciano. (Real Academia, Madrid; Spain). (1863 - Unknown)
Media
Que Valor!