The past two decades have seen an extraordinary surge of studies on nineteenth-century art, from Argentina to Mexico. It speaks to the division that today separates art-historical production North and South that the same has not happened in English-speaking countries. It would be a subject onto itself to evaluate the divergent paths of our historiography, yet for a long time Stacie Widdifield's study of nineteenth-century Mexican academic painting spoke virtually alone for a period caught between the intense debates marking colonial art history and the wave of interest in twentieth-century art. There are indications that the tide may be turning. Mey-Yen Moriuchi's survey of Mexican costumbrismo is a significant sign of this change.
Conceived as an introduction on the subject for English-speaking audiences, the book is organized in five chapters covering different aspects of costumbrista imagery, spanning the production of foreign and local painters and printmakers, academic artists, photographers, writers,...
University of California Press