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 (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 native inhabitants alongside uncannily oversized fruits and local fauna, including in European books of natural history. The costume of the Indigenous woman integrates European elements with products of local manufacture—a silver tupu (pin) fastening her lliclla (mantle), a band of tocapu (geometric rank motifs), and a small ch’uspa (pouch).

An X-radiograph of the painting shows the large pin, which is difficult to see due to the tarnishing of the metallic silver paint. It also reveals a delicate herringbone pattern on the woman’s long mantle, now virtually undetectable to the naked eye. This pattern recalls a European shimmering textile known as tornasol (literally, “turns to the sun”), which was highly prized. Andean weavers skillfully adapted it to their ancient weaving traditions, demonstrating their fascination with woven materials.

Ilona Katzew

2024
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. 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

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

Not on view

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 (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 native inhabitants alongside uncannily oversized fruits and local fauna, including in European books of natural history. The costume of the Indigenous woman integrates European elements with products of local manufacture—a silver tupu (pin) fastening her lliclla (mantle), a band of tocapu (geometric rank motifs), and a small ch’uspa (pouch).

An X-radiograph of the painting shows the large pin, which is difficult to see due to the tarnishing of the metallic silver paint. It also reveals a delicate herringbone pattern on the woman’s long mantle, now virtually undetectable to the naked eye. This pattern recalls a European shimmering textile known as tornasol (literally, “turns to the sun”), which was highly prized. Andean weavers skillfully adapted it to their ancient weaving traditions, demonstrating their fascination with woven materials.

Ilona Katzew

2024
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. 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

A Scavenger Hunt for Families through Archive of the World

October 5, 2022
Rachel Kaplan

Restoring LACMA’s New Vicente Albán Paintings from Ecuador

February 4, 2015
Ilona Katzew, Head, Latin American Art, and Joseph Fronek, Head, Paintings Conservation

Now on View: LACMA's New Vicente Albán Paintings from Ecuador

January 28, 2015
Ilona Katzew