A painting a day · No. 16 of 38
The Third of May 1808
Francisco Goya (1746–1828)
1814 · Oil on canvas · Museo del Prado, Madrid
The story
After the people of Madrid rose against Napoleon's army on 2 May 1808, French soldiers shot the rebels the next morning. Goya painted it six years later, once the French had gone.
Look closer
- The man in the white shirt raises his arms like a figure on a cross. There is a wound like a nail mark on his right palm.
- The soldiers have no faces. They are a machine.
- The only light comes from a lantern on the ground.
Did you know
It changed how war was painted: no heroes, only victims. Manet and Picasso both made their own versions of it.
Why we can show it
Francisco Goya died in 1828. UK copyright lasts for the artist’s life plus 70 years, so even under today’s rules this painting would have been free for anyone to show since 1899. The photograph is a faithful copy of a flat work, which creates no new copyright. We do not store the picture: it comes from Wikimedia Commons each time it is needed. More on this.