Painting the Mexican landscape, Velasco’s candelabrum of Oaxaca

(cheerful music)

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

of an astounding cactus by
the great landscape painter,

Jose Maria Velasco.

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

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

is the famous "Candelabrum"
cactus from Oaxaca.

This particular Candelabrum
cactus that Velasco

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

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

which is an unusual format
for a landscape painting.

You can see that he's carefully studied

the way that the light falls
on each of the branches

of the cactus.

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

and he became fascinated by it.

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

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

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

perfectly of the light on the branches,

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

especially on the shady side.

Those purple-ish pinks.

You can feel a love of the
Mexican countryside here.

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

throughout his paintings
in the late 19th century,

where there is this love
of landscape as a symbol

of the national identity of Mexico.

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

of the enormous scale of
the Candelabrum cactus,

and also the smallness
of man in relationship

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

that's reached this enormous height,

and the many generations of human beings

that have passed while
this cactus has endured.

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

was doing many of these
different preparatory drawings,

and was interested in
the scientific accuracy

of his paintings.

As we look around the gallery here,

we can see numerous examples
of his studies of wildlife,

of his studies of even
the pre-Hispanic past.

- [Speaker 1] This interest in Mexico

in his own time, but also
in Mexico looking back

historically, archeological sites.

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

Although the subject matter is Mexican,

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

- [Speaker 2] Endowing nature with this

monumental, grandiose quality.

(cheerful music)