“Corrida was painted in Madrid whilst I was on a year's Spanish Government scholarship, and it was exhibited in Galeria Abril, Madrid in 1956.  

The work reflects my wonderment and thrill on seeing Goya's Black paintings in the Prado, and inspired my lifelong involvement with a long horizontal format.

As a young ex-student I was also influenced by Francis Bacon, but the catharsis on seeing Goya's paintings made me want to attempt to reconcile aspects of both these two artists, together with my experience of the bullfight.  The painting is also about degrees of fear, expressed by both humans and animals, not exclusively about the implied setting which hints at the bullring.   It is of course, a homage to Goya.“ - Anthony Whishaw