No trip to the Prado these days is complete without a visit to room 12 of the Madrid museum, where Diego Velázquez’s enormous painting Las Meninas stares back at you, featuring a five-year-old princess and a sleepy mastiff. Two hundred years ago, though, the must-see exhibit at the newly opened museum wasn’t Las Meninas. It was a huge allegorical work meant to remind Spaniards of their heroic resistance against Napoleon’s occupation and their loyalty to King Ferdinand VII.
Painted by José Aparicio in 1818, El año del hambre de Madrid (The Year of the Famine in Madrid) shows a group of starving, dying Madrid residents nobly refusing bread offered by French soldiers. By choosing death over accepting help from the occupiers—even as their children die and they’re reduced to gnawing on cabbage stalks—they display a perfect, if fatal, patriotism.
Although this painting was the main attraction for visitors in the Prado’s early decades, it eventually fell out of political and artistic favor and was removed from the museum. Today, after more than 150 years of wandering—including stints in a government ministry, the senate, and another Madrid museum—The Year of the Famine in Madrid has finally come home.
The canvas has been chosen as the first work in a new exhibition series called A Work, a Story, which aims to help visitors consider paintings in a broader context. As the Prado’s director, Miguel Falomir, puts it, the idea is “to encourage viewers to look at a work that, beyond its aesthetic qualities, helps us reflect on aspects of art history that often go unnoticed.”
With The Year of the Famine in Madrid, visitors are invited to think about the painting’s propagandistic purpose, its social and political background, its changing relationship with the Prado over time, and how Francisco Goya’s depictions of civilian suffering have since overshadowed Aparicio’s work. By the end of the 19th century, it had become a joke and a symbol of bad taste.
“This picture was hugely important, and its fall was just as dramatic,” said Celia Guilarte Calderón de la Barca, one of the show’s curators. “There’s no middle ground here—it went from one extreme to the other.”
She added that the painting’s history is “completely tied” to Spain’s shifting political and artistic trends.
Aparicio, who was court painter to Ferdinand, created The Year of the Famine in Madrid to help cement the recently restored king in people’s hearts—hence the message on one of the background pillars: “Nada sin Fernando” (“Nothing without Ferdinand”).
Its openly patriotic sentiment, combined with its tribute to the resilience of Madrid’s people, was an instant hit. It didn’t hurt that it was given a place of honor in the Royal Museum of Painting and Sculpture, founded by Ferdinand and later to become the Prado.
“Aparicio’s skill—and he was very strategic and smart in that way—was to link it to a collective trauma of the entire city of Madrid, where the painting was to be housed,” said Carlos G Navarro, the show’s other curator.
“When you look back at records from those early years, you see that people came to the museum not to see the Raphael paintings hanging there, nor to see Las Meninas, but to see The Year of the Famine,” Navarro said.
But by the late 1860s, Ferdinand’s absolute rule had been over for three decades, Spain was moving toward declaring its short-lived first republic, and the director of the now-nationalized Prado, painter Antonio Gisbert Pérez, wasn’t a fan of Aparicio’s work. Unlike The Year of the Famine in Madrid, Gisbert’s most famous painting is The Execution of Torrijos and His Companions.The painting is Companions on the Beach at Málaga, which honors the bravery of a general who led his men against Ferdinand’s oppressive rule.
“As time goes on, [Aparicio’s] painting loses its meaning and starts to become a joke—a tasteless joke—just like anyone who prefers it over the other works in the museum’s collection,” said Navarro. How far Aparicio’s reputation had fallen is clear from an 1879 book, which suggested the painting could be used as a test of taste. “According to the book, the first sign of a tacky person was that they liked going to the Prado to admire Aparicio’s painting,” Navarro added.
The painting’s long exile began in 1874. A century and a half later, Goya’s works—inspired by his experiences witnessing the horrors of the French occupation—have become the most celebrated artistic records of that era.
View image in fullscreen: Pablo Picasso’s Guernica on display at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid in 2023. Photograph: Europa Press News/Europa Press/Getty Images
But it wasn’t always this way. “Back then, The Year of the Famine in Madrid was one of the most modern paintings,” said Navarro. “It represented a greater modernity than Goya, who, in his time, was seen as an artist following traditional local styles.”
The curators say the new initiative isn’t meant to boost Aparicio’s fame or correct an old injustice. Instead, they hope it will make people think about how taste, politics, and context change over time. The Year of the Famine in Madrid is part of a long tradition of Spanish political and war paintings, stretching from Goya’s The Third of May 1808, through Aparicio, to Gisbert’s The Execution of Torrijos, and all the way to Picasso’s Guernica.
Even though Aparicio never achieved the lasting fame that Picasso did with his outcry against war, The Year of the Famine in Madrid remains a fascinating case study.
“This work went from being at the peak of art history to being pushed into its less important corners,” said Navarro. “It perfectly shows how taste changes, and how our idea of taste—which we think is fixed and timeless—actually shifts with every generation that looks at paintings.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about the return of the Aparicio painting to the Prado written in a natural conversational tone
BeginnerLevel Questions
1 What is the Aparicio painting
Its a large dramatic painting called The Year 1808 in Madrid created by Spanish artist José Aparicio in the 19th century It shows a famous uprising against French troops
2 Why did it leave the Prado Museum in the first place
The painting was moved out of the Prados main collection in the late 19th or early 20th century It was considered oldfashioned and not as valuable as other works so it was sent to a different institution
3 Why is it coming back to the Prado now
The Prado is reevaluating its collection Curators now see the painting as a key example of how art reflects political and social ideas of its time They believe it deserves to be seen again
4 How does this show that human taste changes over time
In the 1800s this painting was hugely popular because it celebrated a patriotic event Later people preferred more modern experimental art so the painting fell out of favor Now we appreciate it again for its historical importance and storytelling not just its style
5 Is the painting in good condition
Yes it has been restored and cleaned The colors and details are much brighter and clearer than before making it easier to see why it was once a crowdfavorite
IntermediateLevel Questions
6 What style is the Aparicio painting and why was it considered unfashionable
Its painted in the Neoclassical stylevery formal precise and theatrical By the early 20th century art lovers preferred Impressionism Expressionism and abstract styles so this kind of heroic academic painting seemed stiff and outdated
7 What does the painting actually show
It depicts the execution of Spanish civilians by French soldiers on May 3 1808 Unlike Goyas famous chaotic version of the same event Aparicios version is more orderly with clear heroes and villains almost like a staged
