Provenance:

Luis Alberto Acuña (1904–1994), Bogotá, Columbia, by 1965
Ramón G. Osuna and Lydia Plá de Osuna; by descent to:
Ramon Osuna, Pyramid Galleries, Washington, D.C.; from whom acquired by:
Dr. and Mrs. Jack Durell, McLean, Virginia, by 1978.
Private Collection, Palm Beach, Florida, until 2021.

Exhibited:

The Denver Art Museum, 1977–1985 (lent by Dr. and Mrs. Jack Burell on long-term loan).

Literature:

Carmen Ortega Ricaurte, Diccionario de Artistas en Columbia, Bogotá, 1965, p. 128.

José Celestino Figueroa was a member of a thriving artistic dynasty in 19th-century Colombia. He descended from a line of Spanish Viceregal painters of the 17th century and was trained alongside two of his brothers by their father, Pedro José Figueroa (1778–1836). His father found great success as an artist as the country transitioned into the Republican period, and most notably was one of the earliest official portraitists of Simón Bolivar. José Celestino was similarly active as a portraitist in Bogotá, although few of his works have survived to the present.

The sitter of this portrait is identified in the inscription as Dr. Juan Ignacio Galves, but no details of his life are known. His formal posture and black costume with green ornamental details in the vest are typical of the established conventions of period portraiture and fashion of the day. The figure is presented in an oval and surrounded by a striking blue fictive frame with a bright yellow border, which beautifully balance with the neutral tones of the portrait. While the genre of portraiture flourished in the Americas, few examples of early Latin American portraits remain in private hands.