PABLO PICASSO | Corrida toros (Bullfight)

Andrés Castel (a gift from the artist in March 1951)
Private Collection, Spain (acquired from the above)
Private Collection, Spain (by descent from the above. Sold: Sotheby's, London, 25th June 2009, lot 155)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Prague, Obecní dům, Tauromaquia. Picasso, Dalí, Goya, Filla, Čapek, 2012, n.n., illustrated in colour in the catalogue 

Cesero Rodriguez-Aguilera, Picassos de Barcelona, Barcelona, 1974, no. 1071, illustrated p. 208

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down and attached to the backing board at the upper two corners. All four edges are lined with tape on the verso. There are two faint linear vertical and horizontal creases through the centre of the sheet. The sheet is time stained, there are a few occasional lighter spots in places throughout. There is some paper residue to the left part of the upper edge of the sheet, not visible when framed. The work is in overall good condition.
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Pablo Picasso, like Francisco Goya before him, was captivated by bullfighting. For Picasso, the contest itself was replete with symbolism and the theme invariably came to incorporate itself into his creative practice. He was enthralled by the multifaceted layers of violence, animality, power, sexuality and death; all refrains which feature with regularity throughout his work. The fights also spoke deeply to his personal sense of identity and the españolismo which is similarly recurrent throughout his œuvre. His close friend Jaime Sabartés once said that Picasso’s relationship to the tauromaquia (bullfight) was, 'by tradition, by blood and by artistic devotion' (quoted in Verna Posever Curtis, La Tauromaquia, Goya, Picasso and the Bullfight (exhibition catalogue), Milwaukee, 1986, p. 70). Although the corrida was a theme to which Picasso returned frequently during his lifetime, it was particularly prevalent in the 1950s and 60s. During this time, he became a regular attendee at bullfights in the old Roman arenas at Arles, Nîmes and Fréjus, with his then companion, and future wife, Jacqueline Roque, and their friends. Between 1957-61 he produced four illustrated books devoted to bullfighting. Notably this included a number of aquatints produced for Pepe Illo’s manual La Tauromaquia o arte de torear, and drawings for the book Toros y toreros in collaboration with the toreador Luis Miguel Dominguín. La Tauromaquia o arte de torear, from 1959, was Picasso’s counterpart to Goya's work of the same title from 1815.

Picasso executed most of his corrida scenes in brush and ink, working primarily with silhouetted forms in a dynamic, frenetic style. In the present work the exuberance of the spectacle is quite clear. The deep blacks of the ink give the composition considerable weight, and the quick energetic lines with which the bull toreadors are represented heighten the intensity of the scene. Picasso manages to convey, in a small number of rapid strokes, the vibrant chaos of the event and his deep knowledge of the subject prevails, 'yes, it’s my passion… but sometimes I can't go… When that happens, my thoughts are in the arena. I hear the pasodoble, I see the crowd, the entrance of the cuadrilla, the first bull charging the picadors...' (quoted in Georges Brassaï, Conversation avec Picasso, Paris, 1997, p. 294).



Claude Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.