Biography
Mexican painter and amateur naturalist. Amongst the most accomplished artists from this region, José María Velasco is recognised for his incredible panoramic landscapes, particularly those depicting the Valley of Mexico. From Temascalcingo (just outside Mexico City) he was born into a family of shawl weavers or rebozo. Following the death of his father when he was just six years old Velasco's family moved to the capital where he became a draftsman. The young artist displayed an immediate talent and a desire to advance his vocation, which led him to the Art Academy of San Carlos in 1859. Studying a variety of techniques in portraiture, composition, perspective and the use of colour he was particularly influenced by the Italian painter, Eugenio Landesio, who emphasised detailed observation of nature and the accurate portrayal of landscape topography.
In 1860 the precocious painter received a grant from the academy as a prize for one of his early pictures, which allowed him to move on into further study. Later he gained employment as a professor at San Carlos (1868) and Velasco taught landscape perspective. Over the years that followed he produced an important series of illustrations depicting native Mexican plants. Having married he returned to living outside the city, moving with his wife to La Villa de Guadalupe in 1874 and beginning his most ambitious and subsequently most well known series of paintings of the Valley of Mexico. These vistas included a great deal of detail, particularly in relation to the foreground flora, fauna and geological features. Indeed his skill in the portrayal of native plant life landed him a post at the National Museum where he worked making sketches between 1880 and 1910.
Working on landscapes in the states of Veracruz, Oaxaca and Querétaro as well as the central valley, when in the field Velasco also indulged in a small amount of plant collecting. Although not extensive, a number of herbarium specimens are registered in MEXU under his name; the examples coming from Puebla and Veracruz in 1881, 1885 and 1886. Keen on observing the natural history that surrounded him, Velasco stumbled across a new amphibian species in 1879, describing it as Siredon tigrina he had actually discovered a previously unknown Ambistoma (the plateau tiger salamander), which was later renamed A. velasci in his honour by the French herpetologist Alfredo Dugès. The aspiring naturalist published many of his observations in La Naturaleza, a Mexican scientific journal. His paintings received numerous awards at exhibitions in Mexico and the U.S.A., although perhaps the most important recognition of his work was the exhibition of 68 of his paintings at the Universal Exposition in Paris (1889) for which he was awarded 1st prize. Receiving the honour personally he took the opportunity to travel further in Europe, visiting England, Germany, Italy and Spain, where he studied the works of the great impressionists although it appears he never painted outside his native land. His works, the majority in oil, although sketches, watercolours and lithographs also exist, are currently housed in a number of institutions worldwide, including the José María Velasco Museum in Toluca, the National Museum of Art and the National Museum of History in Mexico City and the Museum of the Vatican and the National Museum of Prague in Europe.
Sources:
J. Rzedowski, G. Calderón de Rzedowski and A. Butanda, 2009, Los principales colectores de plantas activos en México entre 1700 y 1930
Spanierman Gallery LLC, 2009, "José María Velasco (1840-1912)":
http://www.spanierman.com/thumbnails.php?album=2982&lev=bio&sid=featured&mid=2981
Wikipedia, José María Velasco:
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mar%C3%ADa_Velasco_G%C3%B3mez.
