Purchased in Mexico City (1951/52)
Leo Rosshandler, Montreal
By descent to the present Private Collection
José Clemente Orozco was part of the Mexican Muralists, who along with Diego Riviera and David Alfaro Siqueiros were a part of the modern movement in Mexican art. Early in his career Orozco worked doing caricatures for various newspapers to support himself. In this small, intriguing painting we can see similar graphic elements, as he has wonderfully captured in an intimate study the heads of two warriors. Orozco places emphasis on the figure in the foreground, by applying thicker areas of paint on the face and on the stylized cavalry helmet and plume.
Leo Rosshandler moved to Mexico from Canada in the 1940s to study at La Esmeralda the national school for the visual arts. The time studying there fostered in him a special connection to Mexico which he would have throughout his life. He would become Curator and Assistant Director of the Musée des Beaux Arts in Montreal between 1968 and 1976, in 1977 he would become manager of the Lavalin Collection until it was moved to the Musée d’art contemporain in 1989. According to the current owners this painting is believed to have been purchased from the Galerie de Arte Misrachi in Mexico City sometime in the early 1950s. Originally founded as a bookstore Galerie de Arte Misrachi was the foremost dealer in the Mexican Muralists.
