The Argentinian matador Mariano Ceballos, featured here, became famous in Spain for performing the dangerous act of challenging a bull while riding another, a feat that led to his death in the bullring in 1784. While Goya had depicted the daring exploits of Ceballos in his etching series La Tauromaquia (Bullfighting), he felt compelled to revisit the subject on a larger scale in his suite of magnificent lithographs.

In Bulls of Bordeaux Goya exploits the expressive possibilities of lithography, a process that involves drawing directly on a stone that is then inked and printed. The spontaneity and gesture of the artist’s hand captured by the medium heightens the dynamism of his subjects. In this print Goya suggests fluttering drapery with loose areas of undulating lines and uses a scraper to create bright highlights in a figure’s costume and to describe the texture of the bullring wall.