This iconic oil painting by Mexican artist Rodolfo de la Torre (Rodolfo Alberto de la Torre y Maciel) is in the "Arte comercial de la imprenta Galas de México" gallery as part of the permanent collection of Museo Soumaya founded by Mexican business oligarch Carlos Slim Helú (aka Carlos Slim) and named for his wife Soumaya Domit. With over 66,000 works, the museum is one of the most-visited art collections in Mexico and among the top 60 worldwide. In this portrait, an unidentified beautiful young woman with bronze skin gazes directly ahead with a composed expression, her long dark hair styled in braids. The woman's strapless garment includes draped fabric that transitions from green at her upper body, to white around her waist, and red at the lower part, thus mirroring the colors of the Mexican flag. She has her arms crossed, hands resting on her bare shoulders. Behind the woman, there is an artistic representation of the Mexican coat of arms, featuring an eagle perched on a cactus devouring a snake, rendered in a soft, golden hue against a blue backdrop. The overall atmosphere is one of reverence and national pride, with a color palette that is rich and symbolic, conveying a sense of dignity and cultural identity. While Mexico's great painters (Orozco, Rivera, Kahlo, Varo, to name but a very few) were producing revolutionary work that conquered the world, popular art began to consciously reflect Mexican life and culture and to inspire ordinary people's vision of themselves, as Mexico shook off its colonial identity and remade itself in its own image. A new generation of gifted commercial artists like Rodolfo de la Torre set about creating imagery that would inspire and unite all Mexicans. One of the first great mediums for that turned out to be free advertising calendars that hung in many homes and frequently were lovingly cut out and framed and given pride of place. Rodolfo's symbolic painting was among those images used for such calendars.

Sin título (Untitled) by Rodolfo Alberto de la Torre y Maciel (Mexican) - Oil on canvas / Mid-20th century - Museo Soumaya (Mexico City, Mexico) #WomenInArt #art #MexicanArt #artwork #artText #RodolfodelaTorre #MuseoSoumaya #PortraitofaWoman #MexicanArtist #GalasdeMéxico #CalendarArt #CommercialArt