Corridas de Toros

Francisco Goya's "Corridas de Toros" (Bullfights) (1814/16) is a pen and ink drawing that serves as the front and back album cover for a series of bullfight scenes. Bullfighting was a passion of Goya's—he attended bullfights throughout his life and produced one of his most celebrated print series, "La Tauromaquia," on the subject (1816). This album cover shows scenes of bullfighting, the figures of toreros and bulls rendered with Goya's characteristic energy and economy of line. The blue paper cover with white title and black tape binding is unusual and suggests that this album was assembled by the artist himself. Goya's bullfight images capture the drama, danger, and ritual of the corrida with an intensity that no other artist has matched. He was both a spectator and a chronicler of the bullfight, and his images range from the technical precision of the matador's art to the raw violence of the bull's attack. This album cover, created in the same period as the Tauromaquia prints, introduces a body of work that remains the most powerful visual record of the Spanish bullfight.

Goya's Tauromaquia series is the greatest artistic treatment of bullfighting in Western art, capturing the ritual, danger, and drama of the corrida with an intensity that reflects the artist's lifelong passion for the subject.

This album cover for a series of bullfight drawings announces one of Goya's most celebrated subjects, the corrida rendered with the energy and economy of line that makes his tauromaquia images the definitive artistic treatment of the Spanish bullfight.