Ramón Torres Méndez: La imagen del pueblo en la primera edición de sus láminas costumbristas 1851-1852

Abstract

Ramón Torres Méndez (1809-1885), is a Colombian self-taught painter who is considered the most outstanding exponent of Costumbrismo among Colombian fine artists, because he produced a vast work about this topic for more than forty years. This text is an approach to Torres Mendez’art, considering the first edition of his work named “Costumbres Neogranadinas”, a litography that was printed in Bogota, by Jerónimo and Celestino Martinez brothers, between the years 1851 and 1852. Our work started looking for, gathering and building the complete collection, which consists of 10 prints about inhabitants and customs from New Granada in the mid-nineteenth century. We propose an interpretation of Torres Mendez’artwork, taking into account his way of looking at, depicting and developing the people’s image, during this historical period characterized by a convulsing social and political situation worsened by constitutional reforms, formation of political parties, slavery abolition and the searching for an identity as a nation, among others. As a second stage, we are going to address the study of later editions of the work of this nineteenth century painter. And finally, we are going to focus on “Album de Costumbres Colombianas”, a publication that was commissioned by “La Junta Nacional”, a board in charge of the 100th anniversary of Independence commemoration, in 1910. A copy of this publication was kept inside a time capsule, which was opened one hundred years after.