29. 29AR PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) La Tauromaquia o arte de torear obra utilísima para los toreros de profesión, para los aficionados y para toda clase de sujetos que gusten de toros. Barcelona, Gustavo Gili, 1959 (Cramer, 100; Bloch, 950-976; Baer, 970-996) Complete album comprising a set of 26 sugar aquatints on Guarro vellum watermarked with a bull's head motif specially drawn by the artist. Cover illustrated with an original pointe-sèche, publisher's slipcase and chemise. Total edition of 250 copies, this one No. 189 Printed by Atelier Lacourière, Paris Published by Ediciones de la Cometa, Barcelona Plate: 35 x 50 cm Portfolio: 38 x 52 x 7 cm Provenance Presented around 1975 by Jacqueline Picasso to the current owner Private collection, Paris This work was commissioned by Gustavo Gili père in 1927 for his bibliophile collection "Ediciones de la Cometa" (Picasso alluded to it in the drypoint on the cover, executed with a penknife, depicting a "cometa" kite in Spanish). The painter produced the first 7 etchings on copper and Henry de Montherlant wrote a preface, but because of the wars, the project never saw the light of day. In 1956, Gili fils turned his attention back to the project and once again approached Picasso. Picasso resumed his illustrations in 1957, and in just a few hours drew this series with a brush on the copper plate, based on this treatise on bullfighting, which was the first manual for bullfighters and "aficionados", written in 1796 by the famous bullfighter José Delgado. This light-and-shadow stenogram of bullfighting [thus created] the modern counterpart to Goya's La Tauromaquia (1815), (see no. 168 in this catalogue) a true pictorial testimony to the death of the famous bullfighter Pepe Illo, which occurred in 1801 in the Madrid bullring (Sébastian Goeppert, Herma Goeppert-Frank and Patrick Cramer, Pablo Picasso, Catalogue Raisonné des livres illustrés, 1983, no. 100). Succession Picasso 2024.