Jean Charlot
The Petate (El petate)1937

Not on view

Oil painting of two figures with brown skin and black hair leaning over a cream-colored gridded surface, painted in loose brushwork with a pale gray and cobalt blue setting

Artist or Maker: Jean Charlot
Title: The Petate (El petate)
Date Made: 1937
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 5 1/2 × 7 1/2 in. (13.97 × 19.05 cm)
Credit Line: The Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art
Accession Number: AC1997.LWN.194
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: While living in Mexico in the 1920s, French-born artist Jean Charlot created dozens of small-scale easel paintings featuring scenes of daily life. His intimate compositions capture his Indigenous subjects performing chores or caught unawares in private moments. This painting depicts an Indigenous couple huddled at the edge of a petate, a traditional mat made from woven palm leaves, used in marriage rituals and for other purposes. Charlot first developed this composition in 1933 (M.72.118.4) while working on Picture Book, a collection of thirty-two original lithographs. Although Charlot left Mexico in 1928, he returned to similar subjects over time, and Mexican themes remained central throughout his career.

Charlot played a pivotal role in the development of the Mexican mural movement. Soon after arriving in Mexico City in 1921, he was commissioned to paint one of the murals at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (National Preparatory School; now known as the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso). Widely considered the movement’s birthplace, the school houses important works by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco. Charlot was also a prolific writer, as demonstrated by his seminal books Mexican Art and the Academy of San Carlos, 1785–1915 (1962) and The Mexican Mural Renaissance, 1920–1925 (1963), which helped to codify formative moments in the history of Mexican art.

Rachel Kaplan

2024
Copyright: © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Jean Charlot
The Petate (El petate)1937

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Jean Charlot
Title: The Petate (El petate)
Date Made: 1937
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 5 1/2 × 7 1/2 in. (13.97 × 19.05 cm)
Credit Line: The Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art
Accession Number: AC1997.LWN.194
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: While living in Mexico in the 1920s, French-born artist Jean Charlot created dozens of small-scale easel paintings featuring scenes of daily life. His intimate compositions capture his Indigenous subjects performing chores or caught unawares in private moments. This painting depicts an Indigenous couple huddled at the edge of a petate, a traditional mat made from woven palm leaves, used in marriage rituals and for other purposes. Charlot first developed this composition in 1933 (M.72.118.4) while working on Picture Book, a collection of thirty-two original lithographs. Although Charlot left Mexico in 1928, he returned to similar subjects over time, and Mexican themes remained central throughout his career.

Charlot played a pivotal role in the development of the Mexican mural movement. Soon after arriving in Mexico City in 1921, he was commissioned to paint one of the murals at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (National Preparatory School; now known as the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso). Widely considered the movement’s birthplace, the school houses important works by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco. Charlot was also a prolific writer, as demonstrated by his seminal books Mexican Art and the Academy of San Carlos, 1785–1915 (1962) and The Mexican Mural Renaissance, 1920–1925 (1963), which helped to codify formative moments in the history of Mexican art.

Rachel Kaplan

2024