(Mexican-American, 1904-1957)

Tehuantepec River, 1951, from the edition of 250, signed in pencil lower right "Covarrubias", Associated American Artists, publisher, gallery label verso, lithograph on cream wove paper, sight 15-1/8 x 11-1/8 in.; gilt wood frame, 19-5/8 x 15-3/4 x 1 in. 

Provenance: Galeria Central de Arte Moderno, Misrachi, Mexico City, Mexico (label verso); Michael L. Laughlin Estate, Aiken, South Carolina

Note: This artwork is based on the original painting titled "Tehuantepec River", from his book Mexico South: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a comprehensive work exploring the region's geography, culture, and history. Miguel Covarrubias was a Mexican painter, caricaturist, illustrator, ethnologist, muralist, and art historian. At just nineteen years old, Covarrubias received a grant from the Mexican government to continue his artistic work in New York, as he was already well known across Mexico and Central and South America. It was here where he was quickly commissioned by Vanity Fair and spent years having his caricatures on covers and periodicals. After returning to Mexico in the early 1940s with his wife Rosa Rolanda, he became a leading anthropologist, ethnologist and educator in Mexico City. This incredibly well rounded artist and intellect was held at equal importance alongside other notable individuals like Rufino Tamayo and Matthew W. Stirling, with whom he co-discovered the Olmec civilization.