Goya began his series of etchings showing the Disasters of War shortly before 1810. In these images he recorded the daily horrors of the Pennisular War and Napoleon’s subsequent occupation of Spain. He witnessed some of these catastrophes personally, scenes of death, cruelty, violence and famine. He condemned the needless brutality and inhumanity of the war, regardless of who was the victim or perpetrator. Countless Spaniards were executed during the French occupation. This print offers the stark motif of gun barrels thrust into the picture, but Goya omitted the actual gunmen. This de-humanisation of the executor both literally and metaphorically emphasises the inhumanity of war.