The Peninsular War, or Spanish Guerra de la Independencia (War of Independence), was military warfare in the Iberian Peninsula between the allied forces of Spain, Britain, and Portugal against the French empire. The French and Spanish had been allies for about a decade, and in 1807, their armies formed a coalition to invade and occupy Portugal using Spain as a transit route.
Episode in the Spanish War of Independence – Goya
However, in 1808 their alliance turned sour after French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte forced the abdication of the Spanish Monarchy and instated his brother Joseph Bonaparte as the new king of Spain. The Emperor’s move displeased Spaniards, who, in response, took up arms to oust the invading French troops in what is now known as Guerilla Warfare, resulting in the Peninsula War. It lasted until 1814, when Napoleon was defeated and exiled by the Sixth Coalition.
During this time, Francisco de Goya served as a painter for the Spanish Court, but soon he diverted the attention of his art away from Spanish nobility to the horrors of the war that happened around him. In this article, we look at the Peninsula war and its effects on Goya’s art.
What You Need To Know?
Owing to his decorated role in the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte had established himself as a force to be reckoned with. In the early 19th century, having successfully defeated five enemy coalitions across Europe and found himself as the Emperor of France, his fame spread throughout the continent. However, Britain remained the one enemy Napoleon could not conquer, primarily due to the former’s superior navy troops.
Seeing as there was little his military could do to subdue Britain, Napoleon opted to launch economic warfare instead, blocking Britain’s trade with the rest of Europe that had, one way or another, come under his influence. This embargo was known as the Continental System.
However, because Portugal and Britain had been allies for centuries, the country disregarded Napoleon’s Continental System decree. The Emperor wasn’t pleased with Portugal’s defiance, and in response, he allied with Spain to invade and occupy Portugal in 1807. As a result, the Portuguese royal family escaped to Brazil, leaving the country to the allied forces of Spain and France.
The Peninsular War
The alliance between France and Spain would later go awry as Spain’s mistrust for France, coupled with its internal political crisis, led the French Emperor to betray their coalition. Seeing a chink in the armor of the Spanish Monarchy, Napoleon devised a plan to use it to his advantage.
The Spanish prince Ferdinand VII usurped his father, King Charles IV, as King of Spain; under the guise of reconciling father and son, Napoleon invited both parties to Bayonne. Instead, Napoleon had them arrested, forced them to renounce the Spanish throne, and installed his brother Joseph as King Joseph I of Spain when they arrived.
The indigenous people of Spain disliked the idea of France abducting the royal family and taking over their monarchy. Consequently, both the military and civilians armed themselves to fight to invade French troops. Seeing the conflict as an opportunity to take sides against France, Britain sent troops to reclaim Portugal from the French and join the Spanish resistance. This led to the break out of the Peninsular War between Spain, Britain, and Portugal forces against France.
With Napoleon’s attention split between the Peninsula War and the larger Sixth Coalition War, the Spanish resistance led by British troops under General Arthur Wellesley (future Duke of Wellington) had dealt severely with the French military. In 1813, Ferdinand VII was released and reinstated as king of Spain. Napoleon eventually met defeat at the war of the Sixth Coalition, an allied force made up of Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Sweden. As punishment, he was exiled to the island of Elba.
Francisco De Goya
Born on March 30th, 1746, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish painter and printmaker. The works of artist Francisco Goya majorly embody the intensity of Romanticism, an artistic movement that favored the ancient customs of Medievalism over Classicism and Rationalism.
During the late 1770s, Goya created designs for the Academy’s tapestry factory, some of which were used to decorate the bare walls of newly built residences for Spanish monarchs, bringing his artistry to the attention of Spanish royalty.
Goya achieved significant success in the 1780s when he began his work for the Spanish Royal Court. Apart from commissioned works for Spanish nobility, his art also served as social commentary. In the habit of observing and recording the world around him, Goya documented the Napoleonic invasion of Spain with his art, weaponizing it to criticize the socio-political turmoil in Spain during the Peninsula War. This led to the creation of Disasters of War painting by artist Francisco.
The Disasters of War
Called Los Desastres de la Guerra in Spanish, this is a series of 82 prints created by Goya between 1810 and 1820. The series is a visual protest of the violence in Spain during the Napoleonic invasion. The series features gruesome depictions of the effects of war on people.
The first 47 prints focus on the consequences of war on individuals, soldiers, and civilians alike; the middle set depicts the famine that rocked Madrid before it was liberated from the French. And the last set of 17 prints illustrates the ensuing disappointment after the Bourbon monarchy rejected both state and religious reforms.
Goya originally titled the series Fatal Consequences of Spain’s Bloody War with Bonaparte and Other Emphatic Caprices. It remained unpublished until 1863, when it was deemed politically safe to distribute such content criticizing the French; Goya himself had died 35 years earlier.
Conclusion
As a war journalist would venture into the heart of conflict to report happenings to the rest of the world, Goya’s war-inspired series gives viewers a glimpse into the harrowing consequences of war on both individuals and states. This contributes to his reputation as the most relevant painter of the late 18th to early 19th centuries.
