Very beautiful composition of a bullfighter, standing, in prayer, before the bullfight, painted in profile, right hand on his chest, in front of a small madonna whose candles light the room and create a blue-green shadow on the wall behind the man.

With his cape and hat placed as an offering on the arm of a prie-Dieu, the bullfighter is contemplative, immobile, standing on his right leg.

Verticals and diagonals structure the whole space: the corners of the room where the scene takes place, the seat of the prie-Dieu, the platform where the bullfighter has placed his left foot, but also the direction of the man’s lowered gaze and that of his left leg, which both converge towards the Madonna.

The shadow of death is behind the bullfighter, but his green suit of light and his faith protect him from it.

Perhaps a metaphor for the painting of light that Germaine Lacaze practises with passion, certainly a tribute to the spirit of defiance that engages a whole life and at least a celebration of a Spanish ritual by this profoundly Hispanic painter.

This painting enabled Germaine Lacaze to become a member of the Salon d’Automne in 1957, a salon in which she faithfully participated until 1993.