Félix Cano (XX) - El arrastre del toro

Oil on cardboard painting, “The Drag of the Bull,” Félix Cano, Spain, 1993

Excellent painting by Félix Cano, a Valladolid-born artist, titled "The Drag of the Bull." Created in his mature period, this piece synthesizes several elements that define his visual language: impasto brushwork, the tension between figuration and abstraction, and a color palette that evokes emotional atmospheres more than descriptive settings.

The scene represents the dragging of the bull after the corrida, a moment laden with symbolism within the taurine imagination. Three mules, guided by two muleteers, remove the animal’s body from the arena. Cano does not seek a literal or detailed representation, but reduces the figures to essential volumes, built with thick, rapid brushstrokes that bring dynamism and immediacy through gesture. The bull’s anatomy, the red fabrics, and the bodies of the muleteers, barely suggested, mingle with the background, creating a play between figuration and abstraction.

The impasto brushwork, a direct inheritance from his contact with the artist Candido Portinari in Brazil, is one of the most distinctive features of the work. Cano adopts Portinari’s decisive use of the spatula, which allows him to treat the surface as a tactile space in which matter accumulates, moves, and overlaps, generating a texture that gives the painting a strong physical presence.

The color palette reinforces this reading. The orange, pink, and golden tones evoke a warm sunset, a light that envelops the scene and expresses the end of the day and thus of the spectacle. The contrast between these light colors and the black of the bull or the red of the fabrics introduces a visual tension between figure and background, the latter almost abstract.

This type of compositions, where figuration is hinted at but never fully realized, is characteristic of Cano’s production in the 1990s. The work occupies a liminal territory between what is seen and what is inferred, inviting the viewer to observe and construct the scene.

• Category: Painting
• Technique: Oil on cardboard
• Title: “The Drag of the Bull”
• Author: Félix Cano
• Signed: Signed at the base by the artist. Inscriptions on the reverse
• Era: 1993
• Country of origin: Spain
• Dimensions:
Dimensions with frame: 41 x 49 x 5 cm
Dimensions without frame: 23 x 32 cm
• Condition: Good condition, no visible signs of deterioration.
• Provenance: Private collection Valladolid.

The shipment of the product will be paid by the buyer according to the dimensions, weight and destination; we will contact you to arrange the shipment. The shipment will be carried out under Incoterms DAP (Delivered at Place) conditions. These costs include professional tailored packaging, tracking, and transport insurance. The frame is delivered as a gift at no additional cost; any damage to it that does not affect the artwork will not be grounds for a claim.