The Bullfight

A matador and his companions confront the bull in the sandy ring under a hot Spanish sky, the crowd a blur beyond the barrier. Manet, who deeply admired Velazquez and Goya, painted the bullfight after a trip to Spain, capturing its drama in bold, summary strokes and stark contrasts. This canvas is in fact a surviving fragment of a larger composition he cut apart, dissatisfied. Now in the Frick, the Bullfight shows his Spanish enthusiasm and his modern, abbreviated handling of paint - the spectacle of the corrida distilled to its vivid, dangerous essentials.