"Las mujeres dan valor" is plate no. 4 of The Disasters of War (Los Desastres de la guerra) by Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), lettered "Las mugeres dan valor": two women fight French soldiers; one of them, sabre in hand, throws herself on a fallen soldier. The series, etched between 1810 and 1815 in response to the Peninsular War and first published in 1863, is one of the harshest testimonies ever engraved on the violence of war.
This impression belongs to the edition printed by Rupérez at the Calcografía Nacional in 1937, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, for the Ministry of Public Instruction. Five numbered sets, 1 to 5, were dedicated to Stalin, Eleanor Roosevelt and Manuel Azaña, President of the Republic, two of them remaining unassigned; a further fifteen sets numbered 6 to 20 were issued on Japanese Imperial paper. This print bears the number 19 on the back. One of the first sets printed in 1937 was presented by the Spanish ambassador in London to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where it was exhibited. The sheet bears the blind stamp of the Calcografía Nacional, the letters CN surrounded by the legend "Calcografía Nacional Ministerio de Instrucción Pública". Thomas Harris notes that it is a very well engraved edition.
Medium: Etching and aquatint on Japanese Imperial paper.
Artist / after: Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828).
Engraver: Francisco de Goya.
Date: Plates etched c. 1810-1815; printed in 1937.
Source: Calcografía Nacional, Madrid. 1937 edition for the Ministry of Public Instruction, set no. 19, with blind stamp.
Dimensions: Plate 8.4 x 5.9 in (21.4 x 15.1 cm); sheet 15 x 11.2 in (38 x 28.5 cm).
Condition: Paper toned, with the fibres of the Japanese paper visible and a small spot in the left margin; good impression of the aquatint grain.