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For more information, see the related essay about The Bordeaux Lithographs.
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Bullfighting Scene, known as Suerte
de Varas
1824
Oil on canvas
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
[cat. no. 22] |
Goya painted this powerful work in Paris in
the summer of 1824 as a gift for the wealthy
businessman Joaquín María de Ferrer y
Cafranga, who commissioned portraits of
himself and his wife at the same time. (They
are also included in this exhibition.)
Some of the motifs in the painting recur in
the lithographs below, the Bulls of
Bordeaux, made the following year. Goya
applied paint with a brush, palette knife,
and his thumb covered in a rag, giving the
painting a rough, expressive quality that
accentuates the ferocity of the subject matter.
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El famoso Americano, Mariano Ceballos
1825
Crayon lithograph with scraper, on white paper
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Mrs. Louis H. Porter, 1946
[cat. no. 23] |
The Spanish American matador Mariano
Ceballos gained a reputation in Madrid for
his ability to fight one bull while mounted
on another, a risky performance that cost
him his life in 1780. Goya provides a
dramatic setting for the lunging move of
his protagonist by leaving the stone behind
him almost white, as if he were illuminated
by a spotlight.
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Bravo toro
1825
Crayon lithograph with scraper on white paper
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
Rogers Fund, 1920
[cat. no. 24] |
This print reveals Goya’s linear shorthand,
in which forms are abstractly represented
by staccato strokes and touches. In a similarly
unorthodox construction of space, the
perspective is tilted forward, closing out the
sun, the sky, and all but the first few rows
of spectators.
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Dibersión de España
(Spanish Entertainment)
1825
Crayon lithograph with scraper on white paper
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
Rogers Fund, 1920
[cat. no. 25] |
This lithograph depicts the moment at the
start of a fiesta when the bulls run free and
foolhardy amateurs charge the ring — with
somewhat gruesome results. Rough highlights
appear where the oily crayon has
been carved away from the stone with a
scraper. By distorting the size of the animals
in relation to the crowd and surrounding
them in a brilliant ring of light, Goya
magnifies the power of the bulls and the
dangers they pose.
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Plaza Partida (Divided Ring)
1825
Crayon lithograph with scraper on white paper
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
Rogers Fund, 1920
[cat. no. 26]
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In Spain, canceled fiestas were often made
up by scheduling simultaneous corridas in
an arena divided by a temporary wall, such
as the one seen here. Goya scatters the
focal points over the surface of the print,
re-creating the visual stimulation that
would have been experienced by a witness
to the spectacle.
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Cyprien Charles Marie Nicolas Gaulon
c. 1825
Crayon lithograph with scraper on white paper
Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University,
Middletown, Connecticut
[cat. no. 27] |
Goya produced the adjacent bullfighting
series with the Bordeaux lithographer Cyprien
Gaulon. Their fruitful collaboration is
commemorated in this portrait, in which
the printer looks more like a Romantic poet
than a skilled craftsman. As in the bullfights,
Goya makes use of a scraper to create highlights,
though his overall execution is more
controlled, capturing the velvety textures of
cloth and flesh.
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