Image: Musée National Picasso-Paris / Public Domain
View source →Bullfight: Death of the Toreador
Pablo Picasso, 1933
Technical Details
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
31.2 × 40.3 cm (12.3 × 15.9 in)
Style
Surrealism
Decade
1930s
About This Work
Bullfight: Death of the Toreador is a small but intensely powerful painting depicting the moment of the toreador's death in the bullring. The composition is a swirling mass of color — the white horse, the dark bull, the fallen toreador — rendered in a style that combines Cubist fragmentation with the visceral energy of the corrida. The painting is one of the most concentrated expressions of Picasso's lifelong engagement with bullfighting.
Picasso was a passionate aficionado of bullfighting throughout his life, and the corrida provided him with one of his most enduring sets of symbols — the bull, the horse, the toreador. This small painting was made in 1933, two years before Minotauromachy and four years before Guernica, and can be seen as a direct precursor to both.
Current Location
Musée National Picasso-Paris, Paris, France
Public Collection — Open to visitors
Visit museum website →Valuation & Provenance
2026 Estimated Value
$30–50 million (est.)
* Estimates are based on comparable auction results and market analysis. Not a formal appraisal.
Last Known Sale
No public auction record — held in permanent museum collection
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