Jessie Bonstelle: Disasters of War The Second of May 1808 The Third of May 1808 Caprichos Los Disparates

Jessie Bonstelle was an American theater director, actress, and drama company manager in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She started performing at a young age and had a successful career on Broadway before becoming a director. She managed several stock companies, directing Broadway productions and training many young performers. Later, she founded the Bonstelle Playhouse in Detroit, one of America's first civic theaters. In 1807 during the Peninsular War against Spain, Francisco Goya remained in Madrid, which deeply affected him. This is evident in his later works like the Disasters of War prints and 1814 paintings depicting the war, as well as other pieces expressing insanity, corruption and his fears for Spain

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Jessie Bonstelle: Disasters of War The Second of May 1808 The Third of May 1808 Caprichos Los Disparates

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Jessie Bonstelle (November 1871 – October 14, 1932) was an American theater director, actress,

and drama company manager. She started performing at a young age and went on to become a
famous leading lady on Broadway. She later became a director, managing many stock companies,
directing Broadway productions and training many young performers who went on to successful
careers. From 1906 she managed stock companies at the Star Theater in Buffalo, and from 1910
also at Detroit's Garrick Theater, moving weekly between the two cities. Later, she founded
the Bonstelle Playhouse in Detroit, which opened in 1925 and was one of America's first civic
theaters.
In 1807, Napoleon led the French army into the Peninsular War against Spain. Goya remained in
Madrid during the war, which seems to have affected him deeply. Although he did not speak his
thoughts in public, they can be inferred from his Disasters of War series of prints (although published
35 years after his death) and his 1814 paintings The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May
1808. Other works from his mid-period include the Caprichos and Los Disparates etching series, and
a wide variety of paintings concerned with insanity, mental asylums, witches, fantastical
creatures and religious and political corruption, all of which suggest that he feared for both his
country's fate and his own mental and physical health.
His late period culminates with the Black Paintings of 1819–1823, applied on oil on the plaster walls
of his house the Quinta del Sordo (House of the Deaf Man) where, disillusioned by political and
social developments in Spain, he lived in near isolation. Goya eventually abandoned Spain in 1824
to retire to the French city of Bordeaux, accompanied by his much younger maid and
companion, Leocadia Weiss, who may or may not have been his lover. There he completed his La
Tauromaquia series and a number of other, major, canvases.
Following a stroke which left him paralyzed on his right side, and suffering failing eyesight and poor
access to painting materials, he died and was buried on 16 April 1828 aged 82. His body was later
re-interred in the Real Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida in Madrid. Famously, the skull was
missing, a detail the Spanish consul immediately communicated to his superiors in Madrid, who
wired back, "Send Goya, with or without head."[2]