This stunning piece is one of eight dishes that Picasso created of different corrida scenes, all made of red earthenware clay with black engobe decoration. This scene depicts the moment earlier on in the fight when the picador, or horseman in the bullfight, lances the bull's neck muscles so that it will tend to keep its head low for the later stages of the fight. In Picasso's depiction, another matador prepares to face the bull, holding his cape if only to provoke the bull further. Picasso again utilizes a triangular composition in which the action takes places at the peak. The bull enters from the right while the picador enters from the left. The horse rears up, creating the tip of the triangle and highlighting the point at which the lance makes contact with the bull's neck.

Created in 1959, this red earthenware clay dish with engobe decoration in black is numbered 4/50 (from the edition of 50) on the bottom of the dish. This work also features the inscribed stamps "Empreinte Originale de Picasso" and "Madoura Plein Feu" on the bottom.

DOCUMENTED AND ILLUSTRATED IN:

1. Bloch, Georges. Pablo Picasso: Volume III Catalogue of the Printed Ceramics. Switzerland: Editions Kornfeld et Klipstein, 1972. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 142.
2. Ramié, Alain. Picasso Catalogue of the edited ceramic works 1947-1971, Madoura, 1988. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 426 on pg. 225.
3. Ramié, Geroges. Ceramics of Picasso. Barcelona: Edicitiones Poligrafa, S.A., 1985. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 562.

ABOUT THE FRAMING:
Museum grade conservation framed in a complementary moulding with silk mats.