Color lithograph on Arches paper, 48 x 38 cm (image size), 65 x 50 cm (sheet size)
Limited edition of 300 copies (42/300) signed on the left;
Signed "Botero" facsimile lower right
Publisher: Artis Guild Switzerland (publisher’s blindstamp on the left, confirming that the print was officially produced with the artist’s consent or that of the foundation managing his rights.)
Artis Guild specializes in publishing official, luxury editions of prints (most often high-quality lithographs, photolithographs, or screen prints) in collaboration with the greatest artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Fernando Botero—a Colombian painter and sculptor known for his voluminous stylizations of figures and objects. His work covers themes such as everyday life in Colombia, references to art history—such as the Mona Lisa—and abuses of power—all of which are united by Botero’s exaggeratedly plump figures. This stylization has been termed “Boterismo.”
Fernando Botero painted the original version of this particular composition in 1997 (it was another of his interpretations of this theme—he created earlier versions, stylistically quite different, in the 1960s and 1970s, among other periods). It is a characteristic Botero-style, satirical, and humorous reinterpretation of Jan van Eyck’s 1434 masterpiece (The Arnolfini Portrait). The Colombian artist filtered the classical composition through his own unique style (so-called “boterismo”), characterized by exaggerated, monumental, “fluffy” proportions of figures and objects. Botero retained key elements of van Eyck’s original: the man’s distinctive headdress, the woman’s green dress, the dog (here replaced by a fat cat), the discarded shoes (clogs), and the mirror in the back of the room.
Bibliography:
- Marianna Hanstein, “Fernando Botero,” Taschen 2003, p. 57 (compare Le Casa de Mariduque)
The frames shown in the visualizations are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute a commercial offer.
