Bullfight Scene Plate

Pablo Picasso, 1953

Technical Details

About This Work

Bullfight Scene Plate adapts one of Picasso's most persistent subjects to a painted, glazed ceramic surface. A few brisk colored-glaze marks suggest the bull, matador, and spectators without attempting a fully descriptive arena scene. The plate's circular boundary becomes part of the image: it echoes the ring of the corrida and makes the viewer read the event as an action unfolding around a confined field. The work demonstrates how Picasso used ceramics to compress drawing, color, and narrative into an everyday object.

Dated 1953 and associated with Picasso's Vallauris-period ceramic practice, this plate belongs to a body of work in which the corrida reappears across media and formats. Bullfighting had remained a recurring subject from Picasso's early years onward; here it is translated into a 32 cm ceramic plate rather than a large painted composition. The catalog records a 2023 Sotheby's Paris sale and a private collection, so the work's current holding is presented transparently rather than assigned to a public museum.

Current Location

Valuation & Provenance

Keywords