BERNARD BUFFET | Torero (Bullfighter)

Private Collection, Helsinki (acquired between 1962 and 1975)
Thence by descent to the present owner

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Commanding immediate attention, Bernard Buffet’s Torero captures the solemn ceremony of the bullfight. Employing the striking visual language for which the artist was renowned, Buffet depicts the bullfighter, not as a triumphant figure as the embellished clothing and proud upright posture might suggest, but as one with furrowed brows and angular wisdom, gazing contemplatively into the distance. The figure is flattened, devoid of strength. The artist has worked through the layers of paint, his scratching at the canvas seemingly reflecting wounds inflicted by the bull’s horns. The corrida was a subject of abiding interest for artists and writers during the early part of the twentieth century. As Ernest Hemingway wrote of the bullfight, 'I know no modern sculpture…that is in any way the equal of the sculpture of modern bullfighting…If it were permanent it could be one of the major arts, but it is not and so it finishes with whoever makes it…It is an art that deals with death and death wipes it out' (Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon, New York, 1932). The present work, hailing from the period in which the artist’s critical and creative success culminated, stands as a striking example of Buffet’s ability to capture the inner emotions enmeshed in this final dance, an acute awareness of the Torero in his precarious play of death and survival.



The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Galerie Maurice Garnier.