Lot 252
252 •(MEXICO CITY--BULLFIGHTING)
Vast archive comprising over 290 photographs of Mexican Bullfighting, with a primary focus on the Matador extraordinaire Fernando López.
Featuring a number of dramatic images of bullfighters elegantly taunting, dodging, and spearing the aggressively hot-tempered bulls, in an agile dance with death. López, known as "El Torero de Canela," is the principal subject of the archive, featuring innumerable photographs of his famed performances at the Mexico City arena Plaza de Toros in 1946. Silver prints on carte-postal paper, the images measuring approximately 3½x5½ inches (8.9x13.7 cm.), and a few slightly smaller (trimmed), many with captions in the negative or in ink, on recto, and some with a photographer's hand stamp and/or notations, in pencil or ink, on verso; nearly all postally unused. 1920s-40s
[1,000/1,500]
Fernando López (1922-2007) was a right-handed bullfighter of "undeniable artistic quality." His elegant and considered performances were partially responsible for drawing immense crowds of fans to the newly opened Plaza de Toros in the years following WWII.
