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Lot Essay
It would be a challenge to find three more resonant names from the history of print connoisseurship in the 19th and early 20th Centuries than those of Marcel Louis Guérin, Loys H. Delteil and Tomás Harris, and all three have at different times owned the present album. Harris's name is synonymous with the academic study of Goya; his monograph on the artist is the synthesis of a lifetime's work in private and public collections throughout Europe and America. His own comprehensive collection of Goya's prints formed the basis of the landmark exhibition held at the British Museum in January 1964. Harris presumably bought the present album at the sale of Marcel Louis Guérin's extensive collection of 19th Century prints held in Paris in 1921. Noted for his superb collection of proofs by Lautrec, Degas and Forain Guérin also published several catalogue raisonnés, including one devoted to Gauguin. The Guérin sale was conducted by Loys Delteil, whose own two volume catalogue on Goya was published as part of his extensive series Le Peintre Graveur Illustré (Paris 1906-30).
In their respective introductions to La Tauromaquia both Delteil and Harris refer to the fact that Goya twice entered the bullring himself. It was Goya's profound passion for the spectacle which brought life and vitality to the series and La Tauromaquia remains highly sought-after by collectors today for two principle reasons; firstly the thirty three etchings represent Spain's national pastime recorded by the greatest 19th Century Spanish artist. Secondly, Goya's technical mastery of the etching medium reached its peak with this series, and the etchings have yet to be bettered in terms of their balance of subtle contrasts with intense, graphic power.
In their respective introductions to La Tauromaquia both Delteil and Harris refer to the fact that Goya twice entered the bullring himself. It was Goya's profound passion for the spectacle which brought life and vitality to the series and La Tauromaquia remains highly sought-after by collectors today for two principle reasons; firstly the thirty three etchings represent Spain's national pastime recorded by the greatest 19th Century Spanish artist. Secondly, Goya's technical mastery of the etching medium reached its peak with this series, and the etchings have yet to be bettered in terms of their balance of subtle contrasts with intense, graphic power.