Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz
X. From Spaniard and Return Backwards, Hold Yourself Suspended in Midair (X. De español y torna atrás, tente en el aire)circa 1760

Not on view

Oil painting of three figures in a landscape: a pale-skinned man in a blue vest and hat, a brown-skinned woman in a pink skirt, and a young child between them, with an inscribed text panel along the bottom edge

Oil painting still life detail, assorted fruits including a yellow citrus, green prickly pear, and pale round fruits arranged on a dark ledge against a deep red draped background, with small pink flowers visible at upper right.

Oil painting landscape with dark trees framing a calm river, a stone arch bridge in the middle distance, and tall pale trees receding into a hazy blue-grey sky, rendered with soft brushwork.

Oil painting of three figures in an outdoor setting with trees: a woman in a pearl necklace and striped shawl faces forward with one hand raised, a child in white holds a basket of fruit overhead, and a partially visible figure at left wears a dark hat.

Oil painting of three figures in an outdoor wooded setting: a man at left wearing a blue coat, knee breeches, red stockings, and a black hat with a sword at his hip; a woman at right in a pink skirt and dark shawl with a pearl necklace; and a young child between them reaching upward. Smooth brushwork with muted greens and warm earth tones.

Oil painting, wide horizontal panoramic landscape or seascape, very narrow in format, with dark tones of brown, gold, and black; a line of Latin or European script inscription runs along the lower edge.

Artist or Maker: Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz
Mexico, 1713-1772
Title: X. From Spaniard and Return Backwards, Hold Yourself Suspended in Midair (X. De español y torna atrás, tente en el aire)
Date Made: circa 1760
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Unframed: 39 1/2 × 47 1/2 in. (100.3 × 120.7 cm); framed: 41 5/16 × 49 5/8 × 1 1/2 in. (104.9 × 125.98 × 3.81 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the 2011 Collectors Committee
Accession Number: M.2011.20.3
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: A fashionably dressed man and woman with their child stroll together in a lush landscape that includes a still-life arrangement of local and imported fruits. The scene’s apparently idealized view of colonial family life masks a more difficult subject. The title at the bottom of the work reveals that it belonged to a set of casta paintings (see also M.2011.20.1 and M.2011.20.2). Typically created as sets of sixteen canvases, casta paintings document the process of racial mixing among Amerindians, Spaniards, and Africans. Each scene depicts a man and a woman of a different race with one or two of their children. The inscriptions rank the family groups by race and class and often include zoological and other derogatory descriptive terms.

Here, the labels “Return Backwards” and “Hold Yourself Suspended in Midair” describe individuals of multiethnic origin who have “regressed” from the Spanish, or “white,” racial pole. The Spanish man wears an elegant overgarment to protect his clothing; he holds a sword—a privilege that in colonial legislation was reserved for this group—and a thin, elongated horn for hunting. The woman wears an overblouse associated with women of African descent and an extravagant enagua (full skirt), while the couple’s son is portrayed barefoot to reinforce his lower social standing. Despite the genre’s emphasis on racial classification, the inclusion of local products presented Spanish America as a place of boundless natural wonder and emphasized the colonists’ pride in the diversity and prosperity of the land—a tension that permeates the genre.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Charles Samuel Hainworth (1873–1957), United Kingdom, early 20th century; by inheritance to his son Henry Charles Hainworth (1914–2005), Geneva, 1957; Derek Johns Ltd., London, 2010; LACMA, 2011.
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.
Katzew, Ilona. “De español y torna atrás, tente en el aire by Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz,” Chiricú Journal 3, no. 2 (2019): 17–19.
Ilona Katzew, “New Acquisition: Three Casta Paintings by Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz,” Unframed, April 21, 2011, https://unframed.lacma.org/2011/04/21/new-acquisition-three-casta-paintings-by-juan-patricio-morlete-ruiz.
Selected Exhibition History: 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 . April 24 - July 22, 2018
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. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024

Related Exhibitions

Related Unframed

Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz
X. From Spaniard and Return Backwards, Hold Yourself Suspended in Midair (X. De español y torna atrás, tente en el aire)circa 1760

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz
Mexico, 1713-1772
Title: X. From Spaniard and Return Backwards, Hold Yourself Suspended in Midair (X. De español y torna atrás, tente en el aire)
Date Made: circa 1760
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Unframed: 39 1/2 × 47 1/2 in. (100.3 × 120.7 cm); framed: 41 5/16 × 49 5/8 × 1 1/2 in. (104.9 × 125.98 × 3.81 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the 2011 Collectors Committee
Accession Number: M.2011.20.3
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: A fashionably dressed man and woman with their child stroll together in a lush landscape that includes a still-life arrangement of local and imported fruits. The scene’s apparently idealized view of colonial family life masks a more difficult subject. The title at the bottom of the work reveals that it belonged to a set of casta paintings (see also M.2011.20.1 and M.2011.20.2). Typically created as sets of sixteen canvases, casta paintings document the process of racial mixing among Amerindians, Spaniards, and Africans. Each scene depicts a man and a woman of a different race with one or two of their children. The inscriptions rank the family groups by race and class and often include zoological and other derogatory descriptive terms.

Here, the labels “Return Backwards” and “Hold Yourself Suspended in Midair” describe individuals of multiethnic origin who have “regressed” from the Spanish, or “white,” racial pole. The Spanish man wears an elegant overgarment to protect his clothing; he holds a sword—a privilege that in colonial legislation was reserved for this group—and a thin, elongated horn for hunting. The woman wears an overblouse associated with women of African descent and an extravagant enagua (full skirt), while the couple’s son is portrayed barefoot to reinforce his lower social standing. Despite the genre’s emphasis on racial classification, the inclusion of local products presented Spanish America as a place of boundless natural wonder and emphasized the colonists’ pride in the diversity and prosperity of the land—a tension that permeates the genre.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Charles Samuel Hainworth (1873–1957), United Kingdom, early 20th century; by inheritance to his son Henry Charles Hainworth (1914–2005), Geneva, 1957; Derek Johns Ltd., London, 2010; LACMA, 2011.
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.
Katzew, Ilona. “De español y torna atrás, tente en el aire by Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz,” Chiricú Journal 3, no. 2 (2019): 17–19.
Ilona Katzew, “New Acquisition: Three Casta Paintings by Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz,” Unframed, April 21, 2011, https://unframed.lacma.org/2011/04/21/new-acquisition-three-casta-paintings-by-juan-patricio-morlete-ruiz.
Selected Exhibition History: 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 . April 24 - July 22, 2018
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. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024

Related Exhibitions

Related Unframed

Cooking with LACMA: The Kitchens of New Spain

July 19, 2022
Gaby Barrios