The Dead Toreador

The figure once belonged to Manet's larger Incident in a Bullfight, shown at the Salon of 1864. He cut the canvas and developed two surviving sections into independent paintings. His exact reason is unknown. The horizontal body now occupies almost the entire field, with the surrounding action removed.

The dead man's head turns toward the viewer. Its low position near ground level brings the face close to the front edge.

A white sash crosses the dark costume. The contrast preserves the clothing's structure without a detailed setting.

Stockinged legs extend to the left. Their long horizontal determines the fragment's present format.

A pale red cloth lies beside the body. Its loose contour accompanies the man's still silhouette.

An empty brown field surrounds the figure. After reworking, the background no longer showed the broader bullfight.

The other fragment belongs to the Frick Collection. In 1999 the two sections were reunited for the first time since leaving Manet's studio. Paint layers, canvas fibers, radiographs, and older descriptions were compared, but the original arrangement remains uncertain.