Minneapolis Institute of Art

Before the Bullfight

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida

Date

c. 1900

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Sorolla loved to paint his native town of Valencia, Spain, and was attentive to its cultural traditions and people. Here, he chose to paint a bullfight not by depicting the action in an arena but the anxious, hushed tension of the bullfighters and other participants before the spectacle. Sorolla takes us behind the scenes to the drama unfolding in the hearts of the people who have chosen to take part in this dangerous event. The artist understood the capacity for light to be meaningful, heightening the viewer’s senses and building tension. Here he deploys it flawlessly by contrasting the tense quiet of the foreground with the illumination that will reveal the violent event. In that peek into the packed arena, cheering crowds are a marker of the thrills to come. Europe

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