PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973)

Picasso dedicated Scène de corrida to Felia Léal, a French translator, publisher of rare art books and close friend of the artist. The present work is a testament to Felia and Picasso’s stimulating and long-lasting friendship. The relationship between the two seems to have been strongest precisely when this work was executed in the late 1960s, when the artist dedicated and offered to Felia several drawings – one of which was the present work, executed in May 1967. In the following year, Felia acted as intermediary between the press and her evasive friend for a rare interview given by the artist to Life Magazine. It seems that Felia’s affection for her Picasso was still strong almost twenty years after the completion of Scène de corrida: in 1954, she was responsible for the French translation of a monograph on the artist by Jaime Sabartès.