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(cheerful music)

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- [Speaker 1] We're looking
at a beautiful painting

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of an astounding cactus by
the great landscape painter,

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Jose Maria Velasco.

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And we're here in the National
Museum of Art in Mexico City.

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- [Speaker 2] The painting
that we're looking at

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is the famous "Candelabrum"
cactus from Oaxaca.

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This particular Candelabrum
cactus that Velasco

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has painted is near the town
of Tecomavaca in Oaxaca state.

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- [Speaker 1] It fills the
entire canvas, which is vertical,

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which is an unusual format
for a landscape painting.

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You can see that he's carefully studied

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the way that the light falls
on each of the branches

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of the cactus.

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- [Speaker 2] We know Velasco
saw this on his travels

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and he became fascinated by it.

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And so, returned to it and
did studies of the cactus

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to then create the painting
that we're seeing here.

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- [Speaker 1] And yet,
for all it's capturing

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perfectly of the light on the branches,

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it's also loosely painted in
some areas along the tree,

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especially on the shady side.

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Those purple-ish pinks.

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You can feel a love of the
Mexican countryside here.

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- [Speaker 2] Which is
something that we can see

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throughout his paintings
in the late 19th century,

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where there is this love
of landscape as a symbol

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of the national identity of Mexico.

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- [Speaker 1] He's included
a figure, so we have a sense

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of the enormous scale of
the Candelabrum cactus,

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and also the smallness
of man in relationship

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to the landscape, a sense
of the age of this tree

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that's reached this enormous height,

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and the many generations of human beings

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that have passed while
this cactus has endured.

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- [Speaker 2] Jose Maria
Velasco, as a painter,

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was doing many of these
different preparatory drawings,

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and was interested in
the scientific accuracy

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of his paintings.

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As we look around the gallery here,

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we can see numerous examples
of his studies of wildlife,

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of his studies of even
the pre-Hispanic past.

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- [Speaker 1] This interest in Mexico

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in his own time, but also
in Mexico looking back

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historically, archeological sites.

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There's a watercolor here
that he did of an Aztec pot.

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Although the subject matter is Mexican,

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to me these landscapes really
speak of the beauty of nature.

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- [Speaker 2] Endowing nature with this

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monumental, grandiose quality.

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(cheerful music)