José María Velasco Gómez

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In this
Spanish name, the first or paternal surname
is Velasco Gómez and the second or maternal family name is Obregón.
José María Velasco Gómez
A head and shoulders portrait of a middle aged man, with a brown beard, facing to the left
Self-Portrait, 1894, Museo Nacional de Arte
Born
José María Tranquilino Francisco de Jesús Velasco Gómez Obregón

(1840-07-06)6 July 1840
Temascalcingo, Mexico Department, Centralist Republic of Mexico
Died26 August 1912(1912-08-26) (aged 72)
Villa de Guadalupe, Mexico City, Mexico
NationalityMexican
EducationAcademy of San Carlos
Known forPainting, landscapes and portraits
Notable workEl valle de México

José María Tranquilino Francisco de Jesús Velasco Gómez Obregón, generally known as José María Velasco, (

Universal Exposition in 1889, on the centenary of the outbreak of the French Revolution. His painting El valle de México is considered Velasco's masterpiece, of which he created seven different renditions. Of all the nineteenth-century painters, Velasco was the "first to be elevated in the post-Revolutionary period as an exemplar of nationalism."[1]

Career

El Valle de México, s. XIX

Velasco studied art at the Academy of San Carlos under the professor of landscape, Italian Eugenio Landesio, who began teaching at the academy in 1855.[2] Landesio raised landscape painting in Mexico to high art, and articulated theories of composition that he implemented in his landscapes. Velasco is his most famous pupil, who following his mentor's departure in 1877, dominated Mexican landscape painting and gained an international reputation, whose works became part of collections in the U.S.[3]

Velasco's production can be classified into three periods: The academic years, from 1860 to 1889, that include La Plaza de San Jacinto en San Ángel, Las montañas de la Magadalena, La Alameda de México, El bosque de Jalapa, El Cedro de Chimalistac and El Ahuehuete de Chapultepec.

José María Velasco - Rochas, sem data at the Museo Soumaya

The period from 1890 to 1892, when he was in touch with French

Impressionists
, that includes Valle de Mexico desde el cerro de Atraeualco and Ajusco visto desde el Tepeyac.

Finally, a personal period from 1892 to 1912, Rocas del cerro de Atzacoalco, Pirámide del Sol en Teotihuacán, Popocatepetl, Ixtlaciual, Templo de San Bernardo, Cascada de Necaxa and El Puente de Metlac.[4]

Velasco served as a Commissioner for Fine Arts for the Mexican delegation to the

1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where he exhibited seventeen of his own oil paintings.[5]

Velasco was interested in science, and, as a student at the Academy of San Carlos studied zoology and botany at the nearby medical school; he also studied mathematics, geology, and surveying before becoming a student of painting.

Plateau Tiger Salamander
).

In 1997, botanists Calderón & Rzed. published

monotypic genus of flowering plants from north-eastern Mexico belonging to the family Crossosomataceae. It also was named in José María Velasco Gómez's honour.[7]

Legacy

Hacienda of San Antonio Coapa by José María Velasco Gómez.

Velasco's long career elevated Mexican landscape painting to international standing. One of his landscapes of the Valley of Mexico is in the

Vatican Museum, a gift to Pope Leo XIII.[8]
His scenes of the Mexican landscape are a visual source for environmental historians, since they show the Valley of Mexico before its degradation in the twentieth century, with air pollution and urban sprawl. His landscape art has a wide appeal, since it is more accessible than history paintings that require the viewer to understand a particular event.

Today the Government of the State of Mexico, where Velasco was from, presents an award for artistic merit in his name to painters born in that state. Among the most outstanding winners are Luis Nishizawa, Leopoldo Flores, Ignacio Barrios and Héctor Cruz.

The José María Velasco Museum was opened in 1992 in Toluca with the task of preserving and promoting his paintings.

Gallery

  • Patio del Exconvento de San Agustín.
    Patio del Exconvento de San Agustín.
  • Barranca del Muerto.
    Barranca del Muerto.
  • El Monte Calvario.
    El Monte Calvario.
  • El escultor Felipe Sojo.
    El escultor Felipe Sojo.
  • El Padre Eterno.
    El Padre Eterno.
  • Estudio de una víbora.
    Estudio de una
    víbora
    .
  • Estudio de pensamientos.
    Estudio de pensamientos.
  • Ahuehuete de la noche triste.
    Ahuehuete de la noche triste.
  • Ferrocarril.
    Ferrocarril.
  • Valle de México.
    Valle de México
    .
  • Valle de México desde el cerro de Santa Isabel.
    Valle de México
    desde el cerro de Santa Isabel.

Further reading

  • Ramírez, Fausto and Elena Altamirano Piolle, National Homage: José María Velasco, 1840–1912. 2 vols. Mexico City: MUNAL 1993.
  • Trabulse, Elías. José María Velasco: un paisaje de la ciencia en México. Toluca: Instituto Mexiquense de Cultura 1992.

References

  1. ^ James Oles, Mexican Art and Architecture. London: Thames and Hudson 2013, p. 187.
  2. ^ James Ole, Mexican Art and Architecture. London: Thames & Hudson, 2013, p. 182.
  3. ^ Oles, Mexican Art and Architecture, p. 184.
  4. ISBN 84-494-0129-1
    .
  5. ^ "Velasco's Valleys and Volcanos: Paintings of Mexico at the 1893 World's Fair". 14 July 2018.
  6. ^ Oles, Mexican Art and Architecture, p. 184.
  7. ^ "Velascoa' Calderón & Rzed. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  8. ^ James Oles, Mexican Art and Architecture. London: Thames & Hudson 2013, p. 186.
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