After the Bullfight

Mary Cassatt was one of the leading Impressionists painters and the only American among the French. Before she befriended Edgar Degas and the rest of the crew inspired by Edouard Manet, however, she painted in a more realist way. Cassatt chose a quintessentially Spanish subject, executing this painting of a torero in full regalia during an extended stay in Seville. Having trained in Philadelphia and Paris, Cassatt ventured alone to Spain to study the country’s masters and to follow the artistic path of modern painters (Manet was also fascinated by the Spanish culture). Depicting the bullfighter at a relaxed moment, far removed from the spectacle and violence of the ring, Cassatt elided narrative detail. Instead, with a modernist sensibility, she focused on the male figure in a casual pose and employed vigorous brushwork and rich pigment to describe his costume. The bullfighter’s characteristic bravado nevertheless hints at flirtation with a female counterpart outside the frame.

If you would like to learn more about Cassatt, please visit our Impressionist Course and check out our Impressionist notebook.  ; )

P.S. See Mary Cassatt’s monumental feminist mural here; it has sadly gone missing.