Jiutepec, near Cuernavaca, Mexico

Samuel Colman was a founder and first president of the American Watercolor Society (1867–71). He played an important role in elevating the medium and practice of watercolor in the United States during the late nineteenth century. According to the inscription, this work was painted in Jiutepec, a small municipality south of Cuernavaca, Mexico, on June 28, 1904. Colman recorded a vignette of vernacular architecture, possibly a view of an interior courtyard. He exploited the beige tone of the paper to depict the architecture, heightening it with white gouache, or adding depth and shadow with darker pigments. Jiutepec is noted in contemporary guidebooks as a "primitive Indian town" significant for its ancient church, which hosted an annual festival. Colman may have been attracted to the town for its reputation as an unspoiled historic site. He was likely inspired to travel to the region by contemporary artist-friends such as Frederic Church, who visited Mexico regularly after 1883, painting in the artists' colony of nearby Cuernavaca.