About This Artwork
Mary Cassatt
American, 1844-1926
After the Bullfight1873
Oil on canvas
82.5 x 64 cm (32 1/8 x 25 3/16 in.)
Signed l. left: "M.S.C./Seville/1873"
Bequest of Mrs. Sterling Morton, 1969.332
At first glance, After the Bullfight seems a skilled portrayal of a picturesque subject popular with 19th-century artists who traveled to Spain to study its "exotic" culture. In the fall of 1872, Mary Cassatt spent several months in Madrid and Seville copying the Old Masters as part of her artistic education. However, this painting also reveals an unexpected modern sensibility in its vigorous brushwork and in the relaxed, seemingly unposed quality of the toreador. Cassatt was likely familiar with the Spanish paintings of France's leading avant-garde painter, Édouard Manet, whose influence is evident here.
Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories
Exhibition History
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, "49th Annual Exhibition," April 22-June 2, 1878, no. 192, as Spanish Matador.
New York, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, "Sixty-Eight Great Paintings," January 17, 1957, no. 9, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, "Treasures of Chicago Collectors," April 15-May 7, 1961.
Art Institute of Chicago, "Miss Mary Cassatt," July 1-September 5, 1966, no cat, as Toreador.
Washington DC, National Gallery of Art, "Mary Cassatt 1844-1926," September 27-November 7, 1970, no. 2, as Toreador, ill.
Art Institute of Chicago, "Art at the Time of the Centennial," June 19-August 15, 1976, no cat.
Albi, France, Musee Toulouse-Lautrec, "Tresors Impressionistes du Musee de Chicago," June 27-August 31, 1980, no. 42. ill.
Williamstown, Massachusetts, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, "A Selection of Six: American Paintings from the Clark Collection," November 17, 1990-January 12, 1991.
Art Institute of Chicago, "Mary Cassatt, Modern Woman," October 10, 1998-January 10, 1999; traveled to Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, and Washington DC, National Gallery, no. 6.
"Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman", AIC (10/13/98-1/10/1999), and MFA Boston (2/14/99-5/9/1999).
1st 2 venues of the exhibition only.
Publication History
Judith A. Barter et al, The Age of American Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2011), no. 19.