Jiutepec, near Cuernavaca, Mexico
According to the inscription, this watercolor was painted on June 28, 1904, in Jiutepec, a small municipality south of Cuernavaca, Mexico. Colman may have been attracted to the town for its reputation as an unspoiled historic site. He recorded a vignette of vernacular architecture, possibly an interior courtyard, carefully detailing its varied features from the staircase ascending to a terrace to the arched doorways. Using the beige tone of the paper to depict the buildings, Colman heightened accents with white gouache, and added depth and shadow with darker pigments. He was likely inspired to travel to the region by contemporary painter-friends such as Frederic Edwin Church, who visited Mexico regularly after 1883, working in the artists’ colony of nearby Cuernavaca.
Artwork Details
- Title: Jiutepec, near Cuernavaca, Mexico
- Artist: Samuel Colman (American, Portland, Maine 1832–1920 New York)
- Date: 1904
- Geography: Made in Jiutepec, Cuernavaca, Mexico
- Culture: American
- Medium: Watercolor on paper
- Dimensions: 9 1/2 × 13 1/2 in. (24.1 × 34.3 cm)
- Credit Line: The Morse Family Foundation Fund, 2017
- Object Number: 2017.247
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
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