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Lot Essay
Picasso executed the present drawing during a period in which he was virtually obsessed with the bullfight or corrida. In 1959 he drew the illustrations for La Tauromaquia o arte de torear, a treatise on bullfighting by Pepe Illo, and provided drawings for Toros y toreros, a text by the artist's friend, the celebrated torero Luis Miguel Dominguin. Speaking of his work at this time, Picasso expressed how he had internalised the corrida, how it had become utterly essential to him, preoccupying him even when he was unable to be at the ring: 'Yes, it is my passion...but sometimes something stops me attending...Then, my thoughts are in the arena, I hear the pasodoble, I see the crowd, the entry of the troop, the first bull. One time I felt so bad at missing a fight that I began to conjure up all its phases in my mind …and this has rooted me completely in the art of the bullfight...' (quoted in Picasso, Toros y toreros, exh. cat., Paris, 1993, p. 224).
This double-sided drawing belongs to a sequence of studies which Michel Leiris described as a 'dazzling series of washes and drawings which [Picasso] executed between 11 July 1959 and 26 June 1960' (Picasso, Dessins 1959-1960, exh. cat., Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, 1960, introduction). They succeed in conjuring on the page the visceral essence of the bullfight, describing, in Leiris's words, 'an orgy of ...silk buttons, mantillas, skirts, sweat and perfume' (ibid.). Picasso explored, at length, and time and again in his oeuvre, all of the symbolic resonance contained within the mythology of the bullfight -- the powerful themes of sexuality, power and death that lend this struggle its compelling urgency. The present drawing is especially noteworthy for the immediacy of its style, through which the spirit of the occasion comes through in an emotive, instinctive and exciting manner. Picasso's brushstrokes here can be viewed as analogous to the movements and actions of the torero at the centre of the spectacle -- as swift as they are certain, as dramatic as they are decisive.
The degree to which Picasso identified with the role of the bullfighter was evident in the close relationship that he had with Dominguin. Picasso reflected, at the time of this drawing, on the intimate link between their worlds, regarding the manner in which both artist and torero take part in a process of self-revelation. Both men express and expose themselves through the style of their art, and intensify the viewer's perception of the subjects they tackle. Just as Dominguin brings out the character of the bull during their contest, so Picasso, in his work, evokes the excitement and flavour of the corrida. Knowing their close friendship, one may easily visualize in one of the toreros here the figure of Dominguin, and, in fact, Picasso had been sketching designs for his fighting costumes during this time (Zervos, vol. 19, nos. 32-34).
This double-sided drawing belongs to a sequence of studies which Michel Leiris described as a 'dazzling series of washes and drawings which [Picasso] executed between 11 July 1959 and 26 June 1960' (Picasso, Dessins 1959-1960, exh. cat., Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, 1960, introduction). They succeed in conjuring on the page the visceral essence of the bullfight, describing, in Leiris's words, 'an orgy of ...silk buttons, mantillas, skirts, sweat and perfume' (ibid.). Picasso explored, at length, and time and again in his oeuvre, all of the symbolic resonance contained within the mythology of the bullfight -- the powerful themes of sexuality, power and death that lend this struggle its compelling urgency. The present drawing is especially noteworthy for the immediacy of its style, through which the spirit of the occasion comes through in an emotive, instinctive and exciting manner. Picasso's brushstrokes here can be viewed as analogous to the movements and actions of the torero at the centre of the spectacle -- as swift as they are certain, as dramatic as they are decisive.
The degree to which Picasso identified with the role of the bullfighter was evident in the close relationship that he had with Dominguin. Picasso reflected, at the time of this drawing, on the intimate link between their worlds, regarding the manner in which both artist and torero take part in a process of self-revelation. Both men express and expose themselves through the style of their art, and intensify the viewer's perception of the subjects they tackle. Just as Dominguin brings out the character of the bull during their contest, so Picasso, in his work, evokes the excitement and flavour of the corrida. Knowing their close friendship, one may easily visualize in one of the toreros here the figure of Dominguin, and, in fact, Picasso had been sketching designs for his fighting costumes during this time (Zervos, vol. 19, nos. 32-34).