After the Bullfight
1873
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
82.5 × 64 cm (32 1/8 × 25 3/16 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
31816
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Mary Cassatt chose a quintessentially Spanish subject, executing this composition of a bullfighter, or torero, in full regalia during an extended stay in Seville. Having trained in Philadelphia and Paris, Cassatt ventured to Spain to study the country’s Renaissance and Baroque works and to follow the path of French avant-garde artists like Édouard Manet. Depicting the performer at a relaxed moment, far removed from the spectacle and violence of the ring, Cassatt omitted narrative detail. Instead...
About the Artist
Mary Cassatt · 1844–1926
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was an American painter and printmaker who became the only American artist to exhibit with the French Impressionists. Born to a wealthy Pennsylvania family, she defied social conventions to pursue art professionally, settling permanently in Paris where Edgar Degas invited her to join the Impressionist group in 1877. Her paintings of mothers and children—rendered with Impre...