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Lot Essay
Laden with an electrifying dramatic tension, Courses de taureaux depicts the terrifying triumph of a bull over a horse in a Spanish bullfight or corrida de toros. Pablo Picasso attended his first bullfight at the age of eight, and, enthralled by the event, subsequently asked for materials so as to paint an interpretation of the scene. This early captivation with bullfighting as artistic subject matter lingered throughout his life, and he turned to the theme time and again in his oeuvre. One such flurry of fanatical inspiration took hold of the artist in the summer of 1934, and it was during this period, on 24 July 1934, that Picasso drew the present work. His revitalised obsession with the subject was likely sparked by his visit to Barcelona the previous year, where he attended the local bullfights with his son Paulo, hoping to inspire the same passion for the spectacle in his son that he had experienced in his own youth.
In Courses de taureaux, Picasso renders the bull’s head and neck in meticulous detail, making its ferocious roar of belligerence as it disembowels the horse all the more menacing. The bull is framed by the wounded mare, whose raised leg and arching neck echo the sweeping curves of the bull’s horns. In a stark contrast to the shaded tonality of the bull, the horse is depicted in simple lines, with minimal definition. This juxtaposition of styles intensifies the differentiation between the two animals, reiterating the potent strength and vitality of the bull, and the diminishing life force of the defeated horse. The theme was rich in symbolism for Picasso, and the bull is representative of the wild, animalistic impulses and brutality of the human self. The artist also viewed the mare’s surrender to the bull as an allegory of the antagonism between male and female. Additionally, it was around this time that Picasso adopted the mythical Minotaur – a creature half-man and half-bull – as an alter-ego, and Courses de taureaux possesses a somewhat surreal quality with Picasso’s anthropomorphic approach to the bull’s bared teeth and grimacing jaw.
In Courses de taureaux, Picasso renders the bull’s head and neck in meticulous detail, making its ferocious roar of belligerence as it disembowels the horse all the more menacing. The bull is framed by the wounded mare, whose raised leg and arching neck echo the sweeping curves of the bull’s horns. In a stark contrast to the shaded tonality of the bull, the horse is depicted in simple lines, with minimal definition. This juxtaposition of styles intensifies the differentiation between the two animals, reiterating the potent strength and vitality of the bull, and the diminishing life force of the defeated horse. The theme was rich in symbolism for Picasso, and the bull is representative of the wild, animalistic impulses and brutality of the human self. The artist also viewed the mare’s surrender to the bull as an allegory of the antagonism between male and female. Additionally, it was around this time that Picasso adopted the mythical Minotaur – a creature half-man and half-bull – as an alter-ego, and Courses de taureaux possesses a somewhat surreal quality with Picasso’s anthropomorphic approach to the bull’s bared teeth and grimacing jaw.