.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Retrato de mujer con mono is part of a series of portraits Reverón executed during 1933-1937 for what art historian Juan Calzadilla described as: "an attentive and knowledgeable bourgeois society that doesn't cease to come down to Macuto to discover the crazy genius." Quick and colorful strokes executed in an agile and nervous manner characterize the expressiveness of the period.
This work is particularly relevant within Reverón's oeuvre due to the inclusion of his own image inside the mirror situated behind the seated model in the composition. Such reference clearly alludes to Reverón's admiration for Las Meninas (1656) by Diego Velázquez, a masterpiece he had the opportunity to study while residing in Madrid in 1915 during the National Exhibition of El Palacio del Retiro.
Likewise, the influence of Spanish painting is a constant presence in the most representative works from Reverón's Blue Period including La cueva and Juanita, both from 1919. Inspired in this case by Goya, these paintings present us with art historical references similarly present in latter works executed from 1939 to 1942 such as La maja criolla and Gran desnudo acostado. The present painting marks an age in the artist's career where his work is both immersed in a modern aesthetic and resonent with old world connotations.
We are grateful to Mr. Oscar Ascanio for his assistance in cataloguing the present lot.
This work is particularly relevant within Reverón's oeuvre due to the inclusion of his own image inside the mirror situated behind the seated model in the composition. Such reference clearly alludes to Reverón's admiration for Las Meninas (1656) by Diego Velázquez, a masterpiece he had the opportunity to study while residing in Madrid in 1915 during the National Exhibition of El Palacio del Retiro.
Likewise, the influence of Spanish painting is a constant presence in the most representative works from Reverón's Blue Period including La cueva and Juanita, both from 1919. Inspired in this case by Goya, these paintings present us with art historical references similarly present in latter works executed from 1939 to 1942 such as La maja criolla and Gran desnudo acostado. The present painting marks an age in the artist's career where his work is both immersed in a modern aesthetic and resonent with old world connotations.
We are grateful to Mr. Oscar Ascanio for his assistance in cataloguing the present lot.