Martincho's recklessness (Bullfighting H)

See How the ancient Spaniards hunted bulls on horseback in the countryside.

This work is one of a group of five prints discarded by Goya and not included in the first edition of Bullfighting, of which the copper plates have not survived, so they could not have been included in later editions of the series, as was the case with the seven that Loizelet added in 1876 in the third edition. Of the five prints mentioned above, identified by Gassier with the letters H-L, only a few state proofs and their preparatory drawings have survived. Of a sixth print, of which the copper was never opened, only the preparatory drawing is extant.

Only three state proofs have survived of the present print, one of the second state (with the partial aquatint) and two of the third state (with the aquatint). The proof of the second state and one of the two of the third state are in the Dutuit Collection at the Musée du Petit Palais, Paris. They entered the museum in 1902 as part of the bequest of the brothers Auguste and Eugène Dutuit, although they had previously belonged to the Madrid collection of Valentín Carderera and later to the Paris collection of Paul Lefort, and were auctioned at the liquidation of the latter's estate on 28-29 January 1869 at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris. The other proof of the third state is kept in the Albertina Museum, Vienna, from the collection of Julius Hofmann, who acquired it in 1869 at the liquidation of Paul Lefort's estate.

The third state proof (with the aquatint) from the Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, is shown and analysed here.