Lot Essay
The nine illustrated sheets represent 'Figures in the procession on Holy Monday'; 'A traveller crossing the Chimborazo (an exact likeness of myself with a mask on with goggles at the eye-holes)'; 'A beadle begging and crying "We are angels come down from Heaven & want bread on the festival of our Lady of the Angels"'; 'An Indian woman with a llama'; 'A crucified devotee on the festival of Good Friday'; 'An Indian vegetable woman'; 'A Strawberry-man'; 'A clean Indian butcher'; and 'An Indian in the Festival of the Kings (Les Rois)'
Possibly attributable to the Colombian costumbrista artist Torres Mendez who 'received no formal training, but became an apprentice in a printshop in 1824 at the age of fifteen. He produced some of the wittiest satires on contemporary society and politics, regularly contributing to Los Matachines Illustrados, which started in 1855. He was not only a caricaturist but an extremely skilled draughtsman from life; lithographs were made from his drawings, published as, for example, Costumbres Neo-Granadinas, some of which were printed in Paris.' (D. Ades, Art in Latin America, London, 1989, p. 85).
Nine illustrated.
Possibly attributable to the Colombian costumbrista artist Torres Mendez who 'received no formal training, but became an apprentice in a printshop in 1824 at the age of fifteen. He produced some of the wittiest satires on contemporary society and politics, regularly contributing to Los Matachines Illustrados, which started in 1855. He was not only a caricaturist but an extremely skilled draughtsman from life; lithographs were made from his drawings, published as, for example, Costumbres Neo-Granadinas, some of which were printed in Paris.' (D. Ades, Art in Latin America, London, 1989, p. 85).
Nine illustrated.