14. Jose Maria Velasco (Mexican, 1840-1912)

"Valle de Mexico desde el cerro de Santa Isabel".
oil on canvas, signed, dated and inscribed lower right, "Jose M. Velasco, Mexico, 1892", framed.
22" x 30".

200,000/400,000     

Jose Maria Velasco's paintings are particularly coveted in Mexico because they are the first serious paintings of the native Mexican landscape. This luminous panorama records the site of Mexico City approximately 100 years ago. The two famous volcanos El Popocatepetl and El Iztaccihuatl are featured prominently on the horizon on the left. With few exceptions before Velasco, Mexican artists devoted themselves exclusively to portraiture or religious subjects.

In 1943, to celebrate the importance of Velasco's achievement, the Mexican government declared Velasco's art a national monument--the first Mexican artist accorded that honor. With this recognition, Velasco's paintings became national patrimony and can no longer leave the country. Consequently, the only paintings by Velasco outside Mexico are those which left before 1943. Most of these, such as the present work, another view of the Valle de Mexico in the Vatican, and the two paintings Velasco gave as a gift to Ulysses S. Grant, left Mexico around the turn of the 19th century, when they were contemporary or near-contemporary works of art.

Provenance: by descent in the Speare family of New England since 1902, around which time it was acquired in Mexico as a contemporary work of art. Please refer to the auction preview page or the "Inside the Auction" report for the complete provenance and specific line of descent.

Condition: excellent, very slight surface soil and yellowed varnish, a few dark areas may have been lightly skinned or thinly painted.