The Red Sarape – Alberto Garduño (1918)

A blaze of red against the green of the cactus. In The Red Sarape, Alberto Garduño paints a man wrapped up to the nose in a bright red sarape, his face half hidden under the wide brim of a straw sombrero. Behind him, the thick paddles of a prickly pear cactus, loaded with red and green fruit, fill the whole background, while a woman sits quietly in the shade on the left. Only his dark eyes look out at us from between the hat and the blanket.

The sarape, the woven woollen blanket worn as a cloak, is one of the great symbols of Mexico, and the nopal cactus appears on the country’s coat of arms. Painted in 1918, at a time when Mexican artists were turning to the people and landscapes of their own country, the picture plays on three simple, intense colours: red, green and straw yellow.

Alberto Garduño, painter of Mexico

Alberto Garduño (1885-1948) was a Mexican painter trained at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City. He is known for his portraits and his scenes of everyday Mexican life, painted with strong colours and a sense of quiet dignity.

• Artist: Alberto Garduño (1885-1948)
• Date: 1918
• Technique: oil painting
• Format: vertical
• Theme: Mexico, sarape, cactus, portrait

A bold, colourful print for a living room, a hallway or a kitchen. Find more colourful figures in Gauguin’s Three Tahitians and in our vintage travel posters. Printed on thick matte archival paper, in 13 sizes from A4 to A0. Free shipping, no minimum order. Shipped rolled in a sturdy tube.