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Lot Essay
Maya Widmaier Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Taureau ailé depicts a majestic yet tamed bull, unlike other representations of the animal throughout his oeœuvre as a cruel and monstrous beast. Picasso's elegant arabesques and the lightness of the pencil line in Taureau ailé belie the bull's natural weight and give it an almost immaterial and noble dimension. Picasso referred to bulls as 'angels with horns' per his inscription on the present drawing, 'los toros son àngeles que llevan cuernos'.
Picasso's dual perception of the bull evident in both the angelic Taureau ailé (the present lot) and in the ferocious bulls often depicted throughout his oeuvre reveals the artist's privileged understanding of this beast. Jaime Sabartés recognised his friend's close relationship and obsession with bulls, writing that, 'No one has seen a bull exactly as Picasso sees him, as he displays him. His bulls are real bulls; bulls, not oxen; wild creatures, vibrant with life and with incalculable strength; proud, courageous animals with ferocious impulses - the true image of a bull, translated from the artist's memories of all the bullfights that he has witnessed' (J. Sabartés, Picasso: Toreros, with four original lithographs, New York/Monte-Carlo, 1961, pp. 52 & 54).
(fig. 1) Lucia Bosé bullfighting while Luis Miguel Dominguín is looking at her.
Taureau ailé depicts a majestic yet tamed bull, unlike other representations of the animal throughout his oeœuvre as a cruel and monstrous beast. Picasso's elegant arabesques and the lightness of the pencil line in Taureau ailé belie the bull's natural weight and give it an almost immaterial and noble dimension. Picasso referred to bulls as 'angels with horns' per his inscription on the present drawing, 'los toros son àngeles que llevan cuernos'.
Picasso's dual perception of the bull evident in both the angelic Taureau ailé (the present lot) and in the ferocious bulls often depicted throughout his oeuvre reveals the artist's privileged understanding of this beast. Jaime Sabartés recognised his friend's close relationship and obsession with bulls, writing that, 'No one has seen a bull exactly as Picasso sees him, as he displays him. His bulls are real bulls; bulls, not oxen; wild creatures, vibrant with life and with incalculable strength; proud, courageous animals with ferocious impulses - the true image of a bull, translated from the artist's memories of all the bullfights that he has witnessed' (J. Sabartés, Picasso: Toreros, with four original lithographs, New York/Monte-Carlo, 1961, pp. 52 & 54).
(fig. 1) Lucia Bosé bullfighting while Luis Miguel Dominguín is looking at her.