• Francisco Goya: Contra el bien general (Against the general interest), from the series Los desastres de la guerra (The Disasters of War), 1819–23; etching reinforced with aquatint; 11 1/8 x 15 in.; BAMPFA, gift of Mrs. Louise Mendelsohn.

Five Tables of Amusing Moral Critique

Regarding satire, the George Bernard Shaw quote is here apropos: If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you. Three unkilled printmaking exemplars whose works from the collection are on view this month: the late-nineteenth-century French newspaper satirist Honoré Daumier, who urbanely pokes fun at everything from foreign policy to Paris fashion; the sardonic Spanish court artist Francisco Goya, who fiercely critiques the corruption of those with power and the ignorance of those with none; and the bristling eighteenth-century English moralist William Hogarth, whose The Rake’s Progress merges entertainment and outrage in equal parts. And much more!