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Collections

Attributed to Miguel Cabrera (Mexico, circa 1715-1768) or Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz (Mexico, 1713-1772)
Morisca Woman and Albino Girl (Morisca y albina)circa 1760

On view:
Geffen Galleries, Transatlantic Exchange and Its Legacies
Oil painting of a seated woman in striped shawl and pearl jewelry holding a young blonde child, with a landscape visible at right
Oil painting, close-up of a young woman in three-quarter view wearing a red striped shawl, pearl and dark gemstone necklace, drop earrings, and an embroidered red cap; a partially visible child appears at lower left.
Oil painting detail of a fair-haired infant in a white lace gown with a blue sash and decorative tassel, held against the draped red garment of a partially visible adult figure wearing a pearl necklace and jeweled earring, dark background.
Oil painting detail of a hand holding an open silver snuff box with engraved scrollwork, against a dark background, rendered with soft brushwork and dramatic chiaroscuro lighting.
Artist or Maker
Attributed to Miguel Cabrera (Mexico, circa 1715-1768) or Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz (Mexico, 1713-1772)
Title
Morisca Woman and Albino Girl (Morisca y albina)
Date Made
circa 1760
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Unframed: 36 × 28 in. (91.4 × 71.1 cm); framed: 41 1/2 × 34 × 1 1/2 in. (105.41 × 86.36 × 3.81 cm)
Credit Line
Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number
M.2009.62
Classification
Paintings
Collecting Area
Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes

While most casta paintings represent racially mixed couples with their children, this canvas depicts a morisca (a woman of African descent identified by her characteristic overblouse) and her albino child. Thought to descend only from people of African origin, albinos elicited endless fascination on both sides of the Atlantic, leading to all sorts of bizarre theories about their ability to reproduce, or whether their bodies proved how mixed individuals could eventually revert to the so-called original whiteness of humankind (that is, of “blood mending”). Paintings such as this would have spurred speculation about the increasingly mixed population of the Americas and its habits, including widespread tobacco use among women. (Note the cigarette case held by the mother.)


From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Ilona Katzew in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 38, pp. 186–89)

Provenance
Gerald Paget, New York, mid-1960s; Paget family, New York, 1990s; Derek Johns Ltd., London, 2009; LACMA, 2009.
Selected Bibliography
  • Katzew, Ilona, ed. Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Mexico City: Fomento Cultural Banamex; New York: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2017.
  • Katzew, Ilona, ed. Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800: Highlights from LACMA’s Collection. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/D.A.P., 2022.
Selected Exhibition History
  • Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World. November 6, 2011 - January 29, 2012
  • Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World. November 6, 2011 - January 29, 2012
  • Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici . Sunday, November 19, 2017 - Sunday, March 18, 2018
  • Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici . Sunday, November 19, 2017 - Sunday, March 18, 2018
  • Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici . April 24 - July 22, 2018
  • Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici . April 24 - July 22, 2018
  • Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici . June 29 - October 15, 2017
  • Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici . June 29 - October 15, 2017
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024