Luigi
Capano
writes from Naples, Italy, on October 27, 1999

I’M studying the Spanish civil war and particularly
Guernica’s bombardment. I would ask you a question about
Picasso’s masterpiece “Guernica”. Some studies says it had originally another title: “El muerte del torero Joselito”
[the death of the bullfighter Joselito]. But I have found no evidence. Could you prove that “Guernica” is really an older painting dedicated to Joselito’s death ? Excuse for my awful English and best regards.

Luigi
Capano

David Irving replies:

I have seen the original notebooks in which Picasso
sketched the outlines of the famous painting which became the Guernica painting. The sketches are drawn before the
April 1937 bombardment of Guernica, in which 93 people (yes,
93) died; and the sketches were of a bullfight. But I do not recall having seen the title you describe. So the answer is a “half-Yes.”

[Incidentally, go to: http://web.org.uk/picasso/secret_guernica-f.html]