The Bullfight

Painted in 1865-1866 and now at the Art Institute of Chicago, this Bullfight fragment is one of two major survivals from Manet's large bullfight composition that he later cut apart after the original large canvas was painted following his 1865 Spain trip. The cutting — a decision made some years after completion — has been read as both artistic judgement about an unresolved large composition and commercial pragmatism, as smaller fragments sold more readily. The Chicago piece and the Orsay fragment together document an original canvas of unusual ambition. Manet's 1865 Madrid journey was transformative — he finally saw Velázquez in the Prado and confirmed his own direction.

The fragment's unusual cropping creates a composition that could not have been planned — the matador and bull positioned in ways that suggest the dramatic accident of being cut from a larger whole. The arena sand is rendered in pale ochre, the crowd above as rapid tonal notation. The paint surface retains the freshness of direct observation combined with the confidence of mature technique.