Mexico's road to independence from Spain and France was long and complex, and its artists and art institutions reflect both nationalism and the continued influence of Europe.
c. 1750–1900 C.E.
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Ferdinand Deppe, The Mission of San Gabriel, Alta California in May 1832
Deppe's San Gabriel Mission portrays an imagined mission landscape—one still very much tied to a European colonial project.
Cristo de Sacromonte ex-voto
This token of private devotion after a near-death experience speaks to how smaller communities in Mexico resourcefully made their own religious images
Retablo of La Mano Poderosa/The All Powerful Hand
A small painting on tin shows a complex image of Saint Francis's hand bleeding into a cup, surrounded by lambs drinking the blood.
Manuel Vilar, Tlahuicole
Vilar's sculpture of Tlahuicole draws on the style of Neoclassicism to show the heroic Tlaxcalan warrior Tlahuicole who battled the Aztecs
José María Velasco, The Candelabrum
An enormous cactus in the Mexican landscape is captured in amazing detail by the painter José María Velasco in teh 19th century
Félix Parra, Fray Bartolomé de las Casas
Parra uses a 16th-century friar to comment on 19th-century events, as artists began to make a new art for a new nation.
Landscape Painting in Nineteenth-Century Latin America
Latin American artists in the nineteenth century developed interests in painting the local landscape as a way to create a sense of pride in their country’s past, present, and future.
Coming of Age in Gutiérrez’s Costumbrista painting, La despedida del joven indio (The Young Indian’s Farewell)
Gutiérrez wanted to create art that would change the perception and status of the artist in Mexico.
Picturing Racial and Social Identities in José Agustín Arrieta’s Costumbrista Painting, La Sorpreza
What exactly is the surprise that this painting holds in store for us? There are several interpretations.
Mexican Independence
Revolutionary priests and an ex-member of the Spanish military led a charge for independence and equality for some.
The Academy of San Carlos
Inspired by art academies in Europe, Mexico founded its own in 1785, the first in America.
José María Velasco, The Valley of Mexico from the Santa Isabel Mountain Range
Velasco shows us the history of the land, both the natural and the built environments.
