Circle of Francisco de Goya y Lucientes

Circle of FRANCISCO DE GOYA Y LUCIENTES (Fuendetodos, Zaragoza, 1746 - Bordeaux, France, 1828).
"Portrait of a bullfighter.
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 75 x 54 cm; 68 x 88 cm (frame).
Male portrait that follows the classic models of the genre with the protagonist portrayed of bust, slightly turned in three fours to provide some depth to the scene and the face directed towards the viewer. The neutral background of leaden tonality arranges all the interest of the spectator in the figure of the portrayed that through his intense look and his carefree pose offers a proud vision. Both the hairstyle and the attire indicate that this is a portrait of an 18th century bullfighter. In terms of aesthetics, it is worth noting the stylistic closeness of the painting to the work of Goya, who addressed the theme of bullfighting on several occasions both in his cartoons ("La novillada") with his famous series of engravings "La Tauromaquia", and through several portraits of José Romero, highlighting the work in which the bullfighter is dressed in the costume given to him by the Duchess of Alba, with a capote from Jerez and a handkerchief from Ronda around his neck. This portrait is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (United States).
One of the most outstanding painters in the history of universal art, Francisco de Goya received his first drawing and painting lessons from José Luzán Martínez, who taught at his home and also at the Academy of Drawing founded in Zaragoza in 1754. After three years of studies with this teacher, Goya applied for a pension from the Royal Academy of San Fernando in 1763, at the age of seventeen. It seems that by then he was already a student of Francisco Bayeu, who had returned from court. However, Goya did not manage to enter the Academy, nor when he tried again in 1766. Around 1770 he undertook a trip to Italy to broaden his training and improve his possibilities. There he would leave evidence of his early taste for the grotesque and the satirical. After a long career, Goya was replaced as Pintor de Cámara by Vicente López, and he entered a period of isolation, bitterness and illness that led him to seclude himself in the Quinta del Sordo, on the outskirts of Madrid, where he produced his supreme work: the Pinturas Negras (Black Paintings). Fed up with the absolutism imposed by Ferdinand VII in Spain, Goya finally left for France in 1824, where he met with exiled liberal friends. There he spent his last years and produced his final work, "The Milkmaid of Bordeaux", in which he anticipated impressionism. Today his work is part of the most important art galleries in the world, from the Prado Museum to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Louvre in Paris or the National Gallery in London.