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Collections

Vicente Albán
Indian Woman in Special Attire (India en traje de gala)circa 1783

Not on view
Oil painting, full-length portrait of a barefoot woman in a black cape, lace collar, and scarlet skirt standing beside a basket of tropical fruits and a labeled Spanish cartouche, with a landscape behind her
Artist or Maker
Vicente Albán
Ecuador, active 1769-1796
Title
Indian Woman in Special Attire (India en traje de gala)
Date Made
circa 1783
Medium
Oil on canvas; from a set of 6
Dimensions
Unframed: 32 × 41 5/8 in. (81.3 × 105.7 cm); framed: 36 1/4 × 47 × 1 3/4 in. (92.08 × 119.38 × 4.45 cm)
Credit Line
Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number
M.2014.89.2
Classification
Paintings
Collecting Area
Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes

This painting and its companion (see https://collections.lacma.org/node/2092283" >M.2014.89.1) present richly dressed figures next to giant tropical fruits to symbolize the abundance of the land. Such images participated in a long tradition in Europe of representing non-Western peoples, and the precise botanical renditions responded to taxonomic impulses fostered by the Enlightenment.

This painting combines ancient Indigenous costume elements—a silver tupu (pin) fastening her lliclla (mantle), a band of tocapu (geometric rank motifs), and a small pouch—with elements of European dress.


From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Ilona Katzew in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 45, pp. 205–10)

Provenance
Addison Mizner, Palm Beach, Florida, c. 1920; William Gray Warden (Warden House), West Palm Beach, Florida, 1922; Benjamin and Gertrude Shapiro, Palm Beach, Florida, 1945; by inheritance to their granddaughter Sheryl Greenberg, 1969–70; Sotheby’s, New York, May 28–29, 2014, lot 60; LACMA, 2014.
Selected Bibliography
  • 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.

  • Ilona Katzew, “Now on View: LACMA’s New Vicente Albán Paintings from Ecuador,” Unframed, January 28, 2015, https://unframed.lacma.org/2015/01/28/now-view-lacmas-new-vicente-albán-paintings-ecuador.

  • Joseph Franek, Ilona Katzew, “Restoring LACMA’s New Vincente Albán Paintings from Ecuador,” Unframed, February 4, 2015, https://unframed.lacma.org/2015/02/04/restoring-new-vicente-alban.

Selected Exhibition History
  • 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