Mariano Ceballos riding a bull with a "rejón" ( Bullfighting J)

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 the 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 two state proofs have survived of the present print, both with the etching, aquatint and drypoint, one in the National Library of Spain (Inv. 45681) and the other in the Dutuit Collection of the Musée du Petit Palais in Paris (GDUT 5431). Both proofs are from the same and only known state. The one in the Dutuit Collection entered the Musée du Petit Palais in 1902 as part of the bequest of the brothers Auguste and Eugène Dutuit, although it had previously belonged to the Madrid collection of Valentín Carderera and then to the Galichon collection in Paris, where it was already in 1887. The state proof in the National Library also belonged to the collection of Valentín Carderera, who bought it from Mariano Goya y Goicoechea, the painter's grandson.

The catalogue data shown and the image reproduced correspond to the state proof of the Dutuit Collection in the Musée du Petit Palais, Paris.