Lot 595: Joaquín Pinto (Ecuadorean/Quito, 1842-1906), "Two

Joaquín Pinto (Ecuadorean/Quito, 1842-1906), "Two Figures of the Upper Amazon", oil on canvas, signed on ankle bracelets lower center and right, label reading "Marco por Casa Del Arte No.173, Oct. 10, 1956" en verso, 34 1/2 in. x 24 1/2 in., in a gilt frame.

Note: Displaying an early interest in painting, Joaquín Pinto began his artistic training with Ramón Vargas. After completing one year with Vargas, he continued studies with Raphael Vanegas, Andres Acosta, Tomas Comacho, Nicolas Cabrera and Juan Manosalvas. Manosalvas trained in Rome and used his studio as an informal meeting place for Pinto and other Quito artists. Eager to learn, Pinto became adept not only in painting, but mathematics, science and language. He mastered English, French, German, Hebrew, Greek and Latin. Pinto was the director of Cuencas' Academy of Painting and Drawing in 1903-04, and in 1904 founded the National School of Fine Arts in Quito with fellow painter Ramón Salas. Pinto excelled in landscape and costumbrismo s enes. The costumbrismo scenes were highly collected by visiting Europeans. References: Dawn Ades, Art in Latin America The Modern Era, 1820-1980 (New Haven, CT, 1989) pp. 86, 353; Peter Bakewell, A History of Latin America, (Oxford and Malden, MA, 1997) p. 489; Judith D. Toland, Ethnicity and the State (Piscataway, New Jersey, 1992) pp.40-41