Francisco de Goya: “The butterfly bull”
The butterfly bull, a record price for a drawing by Goya
A drawing by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, “El toro mariposa” (“The butterfly bull”), has been sold this December 5th 2006 in Christie’s London for £1.46 million, a record price for a drawing by the artist.
The drawing, simple but with a great expressiveness, was created during Goya’s voluntary exile in Bordeaux , and shows a bull being suspended by a group of grotesque butterflies. As the auction house quotes: ” the composition is the perfect expression of Goya’s reputation as the first truly modern artist with a surrealism that prefigures Odilon Redon and a searching line that anticipates the young Picasso.”
The work, which was expected to release £400,000 – 600,000, easily surpassed the previous record for a drawing by Goya, set in 1997 when “Dos orientales” (“Two Orientals”) was sold at the same auction house for £6395000
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