Picador Cought by a Bull (Bravo Toro)

Details

Delteil 287; Harris 284 I (of II).
Provenance:
Marcel Louis Guérin (1873 – 1948), Paris, stamped lower left (Lugt 1872 b); sold at his auction on 9 December 1921, lot 128; acquired there by Maurice Gobin from M. Knoedler & Co, New York, around 1930 (label from M. Knoedler & Co on the former back board).

Descrizione

Sheet 2 from the set: The Bulls of Bordeaux. A superb, dense, black trial proof, printed before the 1825 edition of 100. The short, thick, horizontal strokes still go beyond the boundary line in the lower right margin. With the light-coloured rectangular area in the upper left corner and the bold black “D” in the lower right corner, which was later lightened or even removed altogether.
Towards the end of his life, Goya created lithographs, still keen to experiment and in search of new working methods. The unstable political situation in Spain had prompted Goya to go into exile in France in 1824, first to Paris and later in the same year to Bordeaux, where he met the French lithographer Gaulon, who had opened a workshop there in 1818. Gaulon encouraged Goya to experiment with the new medium of lithography by drawing directly onto the stone with a lithographic pen and using a scraper to create bright highlights, a method that Géricault and Delacroix had already used to great effect.
The overall impression of his lithographs is rougher, more forceful and more painterly than his early Engravings. The present print is a very good example of Goya’s use of lithography, a medium that allowed him great spontaneity and directness in the production of the print.
Although the project was a commercial failure, the “Bulls of Bordeaux” was an astonishing technical and artistic achievement and is now one of his greatest graphic works. As one of the first important artists to experiment with the new technique, this series shows how quickly and with high quality Goya mastered the new technique of lithography. – Some staining along the margins and with a lightstain. The right and lower right edges with carefully closed tears in the margin outside the image. Smoothed creases along the lower edge and in the corners. The paper roughened at the upper edge on the reverse due to a former mounting, otherwise in good condition.
Very rare!