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Bullfight, Suerte de Varas
Francisco Goya·1824
Historical Context
Goya painted Bullfight, Suerte de Varas around 1824, depicting the opening act of the corrida where mounted picadors lance the bull from horseback. Painted during Goya's exile in Bordeaux, the work demonstrates his lifelong fascination with the spectacle of bullfighting. The loose, fluid technique of his Bordeaux period gives the scene an atmospheric immediacy quite different from the precise detail of his earlier Tauromaquia prints. Now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, the painting represents Goya's late engagement with Spanish cultural traditions from the perspective of exile.
Technical Analysis
Goya captures the violent action of the picador's lance against the charging bull with bold, summary brushwork and a bright, sunlit palette. The dynamic composition and the energetic handling demonstrate the undiminished vitality of his artistic vision in old age.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the fluid, atmospheric technique of the Bordeaux period: this late bullfight scene has a luminous, almost Impressionistic quality very different from the dense darkness of the Black Paintings.
- ◆Look at the action of the picador's lance: Goya freezes a specific moment of the suerte de varas with the insider's eye of a genuine aficionado who knows exactly what he is showing.
- ◆Observe the sunny Spanish light: the bright, warm palette of this exile painting suggests not just a subject but a remembered world — the Spain Goya left behind.
- ◆Find the undiminished vitality of Goya's brushwork: at eighty, still in exile, still painting the corrida with the energy and authority of his best work.
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