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拍品专文
The theme of the bull-fighter was one that seemingly obsessed Picasso during the first half of 1960. Executed on 8 June of that year, Picador et femme is an atmospheric and intense picture that shows a Spanish picador in full costume before a beautiful woman wearing the Spanish mantilla draped over her shoulder. Picador and woman are facing each other as if caught in a moment, at first sight, indeed, in a romantic scene: The proud picador with a determined chin, still in his admiration of the beautiful woman, she with eyes shyly looking down, while in her profile she shows her equally proud demeanour. The shadows on their faces reveal the strong and hot summer sun shining down on them, creating an atmosphere of heat and foreshadowing. The picador will soon enter the arena for his next fight.
This picture combines several of the themes that were closest to Picasso's heart. After all, for him, art was a form of autobiography. Being a regular visitor to bullfights, he did not need models, he did not need a picador and a woman before him in order to create this image. Instead, Picador et femme is the product of his imagination and his emotions. For the bullfight and its related themes reflected Picasso's own concerns with nationality, with his native Spain which he had not been able to visit since the Spanish Civil War; it reflected his interest in machismo, something to which he was clutching all the more tenaciously as he restlessly entered old age; and in the almost timeless costumes, it reflects his continuing obsession with the Old Masters whom he hoped to rival.
In its Spanishness and its chiaroscuro, Picador et femme has a hint of Picasso's beloved compatriot Velasquez, who had been a touchstone throughout his life, beginning with the copies that he had made as a young man in the Prado. He was both trying to topple the established canon, and also to place himself on a pedestal with his heroes.
This picture combines several of the themes that were closest to Picasso's heart. After all, for him, art was a form of autobiography. Being a regular visitor to bullfights, he did not need models, he did not need a picador and a woman before him in order to create this image. Instead, Picador et femme is the product of his imagination and his emotions. For the bullfight and its related themes reflected Picasso's own concerns with nationality, with his native Spain which he had not been able to visit since the Spanish Civil War; it reflected his interest in machismo, something to which he was clutching all the more tenaciously as he restlessly entered old age; and in the almost timeless costumes, it reflects his continuing obsession with the Old Masters whom he hoped to rival.
In its Spanishness and its chiaroscuro, Picador et femme has a hint of Picasso's beloved compatriot Velasquez, who had been a touchstone throughout his life, beginning with the copies that he had made as a young man in the Prado. He was both trying to topple the established canon, and also to place himself on a pedestal with his heroes.