I chose Edouard Manet's painting of "Dead Toreador and The Bullfight" because it stuck out with its single subject of a man lying defeated on the ground, and because it brings me to think about why ONLY the subject of a dead man was painted. I can easily understand that Manet is showing the idea of a death, but why are there little details of how the death came or happened? Don't get me wrong, because I know it is obvious how the Toreador died, but why is that not being shown in the painting as well? ... Manet had no intentions of showing the fighter at the scene nor did he want to include any other subjects in this. I guess it keeps things simple, yet mysterious...

After staring a little longer, the man appears to be placed in a rather comfortable position and his location of "eternal rest" seems to have little significance to the dead man itself. However, the contrast of shadows to the darker figure is still somewhat appealing to the eye of the viewer. Also, there is some depth shown here, since the figure is placed on a diagonal, which can make things slightly more interesting...though not too much. I am still not sure why I like this painting or choose to read into it so much. I guess I can say that I appreciate Manet's idea of presenting a consequence [death] without explaining/ painting how or why it happened. One can look at this painting and say: "Alright, bulls are not always our friends!"