Goya: A hidden gem in a dark vault
Purchased, shelved, and forgotten for over a century — such was the fate of the edition of Francisco Goya’s The Disasters of War that ended up in the library of the Norwegian Nobel Institute sometime in the early 1900s.
It was most likely acquired by Christian Lous Lange, the Institute’s first director and head librarian, who later became the first Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Lange was deeply engaged in international politics, and when building the newly established Institute’s library, he travelled across Europe purchasing books.
“I’ve searched everywhere for traces of the acquisition of Goya’s work, but found nothing,” says current head librarian Bjørn Vangen. “All we know is that it was bought in the early phase of the library’s history, as it has a low collection number. Then it was placed on a shelf and forgotten.”
The Father of Modernism
Francisco Goya is one of Spain’s most renowned artists and is considered by many to be the father of modern art. He began his career as a court painter for King Charles IV of Spain, but after the wars following Napoleon’s invasion of Spain in 1808, his approach to society and art changed dramatically.
The Spanish War of Independence is often referred to as the world’s first guerrilla war, marked by extreme brutality and heavy civilian casualties. Goya depicted the war from the perspective of the victims and civilians. He portrayed the horrors of war — not proud generals and brave soldiers, as was common among artists of his time. The Nobel Peace Center is exhibiting nine of the 82 prints from the series The Disasters of War. Among the titles are “The Devastations of War,” “Barbarians,” and “One Cannot Look at This.”
"We were moving some books and organizing the archives when we came across a book of rather unusual format. As I began leafing through it, I immediately realized I was holding an original print of Goya. "
An Original Work
“Goya’s images of the Napoleonic War on the Iberian Peninsula are a processing of a Spanish trauma and have become part of the Western art canon,” says Vangen.
The copy held by the Nobel Institute’s library is from the fourth edition of the book, printed in 1905, with only 275 copies produced.
When Vangen began working at the Nobel Institute in 1996, no one knew the collection contained this valuable artwork. He discovered it by chance, many years later.
“We were moving some books and organising the archives when we came across a book of rather unusual format. As I began leafing through it, I immediately realised I was holding an original print of Goya,” Vangen recounts.
Since then, the book has been safely locked away in the vault. Now, more than 100 years after it was acquired for the Nobel Institute’s library, parts of the work are being exhibited to the public in the exhibition War is Peace? at the Nobel Peace Center.
“I’m glad the public gets to see these works, as we have no space to display them at the Institute,” says Vangen. “They are gruesome, but through artistic expression they show what we humans are capable of doing to one another. And although the works depict a war from long ago, they also speak to the world today. While we are bombarded with news images from ongoing wars around the globe, perhaps Goya’s drawings can help us reflect on the evil of war in a slightly different way?”
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