Before the Bullfight

Before the Bullfight from 1900, at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, depicts figures in the preliminary moments before the corrida — the moment of preparation and anticipation in the bullring or its antechamber. The bullfight was a central and contested element of Spanish cultural identity in 1900, simultaneously celebrated as quintessentially national and criticized by reformers as barbaric. Sorolla's engagement with the subject was relatively limited compared to his beach and garden scenes, but it demonstrates his awareness of the full breadth of Spanish cultural experience. The Minneapolis Institute holds this as part of its representation of Spanish nineteenth-century painting.

The bright light of the Spanish afternoon sun illuminates the figures with the characteristic Sorolla intensity — white and gold contrasting against the shadowed areas of the bullring setting. The anticipatory mood of the title is conveyed through the static postures of waiting figures rather than any dramatic action.