Year 2001
Oil on board
100 x 81 cm

A woman with a foreshortened face covers her back with a Manila shawl, a female garment used for festive occasions.

Her black hair is adorned with a Peruvian lillium, the flower of success, the one that our bullfighters dream of obtaining by “making the Americas”, to promote and consolidate their artistic career on the other side of the ocean, where the bullfighting hobby and tradition is widely spread.

The humble origin, the economic precariousness, was once a common element in the beginnings of most of the legendary figures of bullfighting. For this reason, the golden coin earring symbolises wealth, the economic return that those who face death at every bullfight aspire to achieve.

Two bulls on either side flank the figure: Talent and Will, two attributes necessary for success.

Talent, hard work, digging for the earth. Will, with its head held high, looks at us proudly and defiantly.

In the background, a gallery of arches with a balustrade at the top refers us to the stands of the bullring. 

This painting was made at the personal and private request of the then Territorial Director of Andalusia of Radio Nacional de España, Mr. Carmelo Olaso Hernández and Alberto Alonso, to embellish the ceremony of the presentation of the bullfighting trophies of Oreja de oro and Oreja de plata awarded to Curro Romero “El Faraón de Camas” and Julián López ” El Juli” in 2001.

©María José Aguilar