arena (A los toros) - Pablo Picasso - "La Tauromaquia” - Pablo Picasso - "La Tauromaquia”

Pablo Picasso "La Tauromaquia"
May 1957 dimension: 20 x 30 cm

Etching aquatint with sugar, with hand-etching on copper beveled
printed on paper "Velin pour fil de Guarro" (with dual watermark)
single state
origin: • private art collection
Illustration n. II text: José Delgado (alias Pepe Illo), La Tauromaquia or Arte de torear, Gustavo Gili - Ediciones
Comet, Barcelona 1959

In etching the people who will be involved in the spectacle of bullfighting through the city acclaimed by a
procession of locals and aficionados, word derived from the Spanish "aficion" and means "passion" are in fact the
amateurs of bullfighting. The country setting is probably Arles, where Picasso had witnessed a bullfight in
following which seems to have completed the series. The ink strokes the return movement of the
cheering crowd that greets with cheers and chants for the arrival of the protagonists. As in the first incision, appears picador
horseback, recognizable by the typical hat, montera, broad-brimmed; its name comes from the fact that it uses the
"Pica" (the spear). The special attention of Picasso in making recognizable the picador profile is
track in the familiarity that the artist had with this subject: in fact, the first drawing by Picasso, made in
1889 in just eight years, portrays a picador on horseback during a bullfight.

More information in the annex