La creación del costumbrismo

This collection includes more than ninety watercolors and temperas representing one of the most important in the history of Peruvian customs representations, collected in Lima between 1827 and 1839 by Amédée Chaumette des Fossés (Paris, 1782 -1841), the first French consul in the Peru. The works recorded scenes, types, figures and new customs that until now were unknown or which had been completely forgotten. They are the earliest dated images known of local customs, and represent a key moment in the development of Peruvian art that can provide insight into the artistic and social context of early Republican period. The watercolors and temperas are the work of an anonymous artist (identified as Ecuadorian painter Francisco Javier Cortés, who died in Lima in 1839) who would have preceded Pancho Fierro in the representation of local customs. The MALI (Museo de Arte de Lima) acquired this collection in the auction "Tableaux et dessins anciens et du 19e siècle, sculptures" in Paris, on November of 2014, through a generous donation by Juan Carlos Verme.