The End of the Corrida 1870

Editor: Jean-Léon Gérôme's oil painting, "The End of the Corrida," painted around 1870, is a stark scene. All the dead horses littering the ring really stick out. What do you see in this piece, beyond the immediately visible subject matter? Curator: What I find particularly striking is how Gérôme uses oil paint, traditionally a medium for valor and prestige, to depict the aftermath of a spectacle built on labor and violence. The very materiality of the paint—ground pigments mixed with oil, sourced and processed through extensive means—contrasts sharply with the brutal realities represented. Editor: So, the value we place on the materials challenges the brutal event? Curator: Exactly. Consider the socio-economic dynamics inherent in the spectacle of the corrida. It’s about labor: the labor of raising these animals, the labor involved in their eventual slaughter, and the labor of those who consume the spectacle. How does Gérôme’s artistic labor, his choices in deploying these costly materials, contribute to a dialogue about class and consumption here? The very act of depicting the discarded animals raises questions about value, expendability, and waste within this cultural ritual. Editor: It almost feels like a critique of the social structures that allow such spectacles. A very grim commentary on both the event, but also it’s audience and financial backing. Curator: Precisely. The application of "high art" techniques to represent such a "low" subject— the carnage following a bullfight —demands we consider what artistic traditions celebrate, and what they often obscure regarding labor and its social costs. What stories get told, by whom, and at whose expense, becomes central. Editor: I see it so differently now. Thinking about it as artistic labor versus the animal labor within this deadly spectacle is insightful. Thank you. Curator: A fresh perspective helps us challenge how art participates in systems of power and production.