Artist: Pablo Picasso
Title: Portrait de Pepe Illo
Medium: Drypoint on Japan paper
Serie: Unique
Year: 28.5.(19)63
Edition: 50
Publisher-editor: Gustavo Gili
Bibliograph/Published: Bloch 1109
Sizes: 19.5x17cm plate, 24x20cm paper
Signature: Signed on pencil
Condition: perfect
José Delgado Guerra, better known as Pepe-Hillo (sometimes written without the either the 'h' or the hyphen: Pepe Illo), who apart from being a key figure in the evolution of bullfighting, also achieved major popularity with his rather unorthodox style.
Pepe-Hillo was born in Seville on 14th March 1754 and learnt to bullfight as a disciple of Joaquín Rodríguez, alias Costillares, who was considered to be the father of modern bullfighting. In 1769, when he was only 15 years old, he made his debut as a novice, and when he was 20 years old he received the 'alternativa' (the ceremony of recognition) from Juan Romero, officially becoming a bullfighter.
Provided with a very particular style, filled with subtle moves and with a point of recklessness, Pepe-Hillo won the enthusiasm of fans of the bullfights, but also the enmity of other purist bullfighters. This was the case of Pedro Romero, who considered that the bullfighter only had to use his hands and should be still from waist down. Maybe to prove that he also knew the classic rules, Pepe-Hillo published in 1796 the treatise Tauromachy or the Art of Bullfighting, probably written with his friend José de la Tixera.
Finally, on 11th May 1801, Pepe-Hillo died in the Bullring of Corte de Madrid (currently, the Bullring of Monumental de Las Ventas), on being gored twice by a bull called Barbudo (The bearded one). The death of the bullfighter caused a great commotion to the city, to the point that Goya put the episode on record in some engravings and that Queen María Luisa referred to in her private correspondence.
The fame of Pepe-Hillo continued to live on many years after his death until our days.
