Rose Cowan, later Rosa Rolanda, was born in the United States, September 6, 1895. Her father was an American engineer and her mother, Guadalupe Ruelas, who had been born in Azusa, CA, to Mexican parents. She always insisted on having her own way. Rosa had a gift for sculpture and excelled in physical education, her teachers encouraged her to study dance. She was chosen between three hundred students to perform with the Marion Morgan Dancers in New York in 1916. Rosa had joined the cast of Irving Berlin´s Music Box Revue. Later, she met Mexican painter, Miguel Covarrubias in the United States. With Covarrubias, Rosa spent much time with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and other important artists in Mexico who encouraged her to paint. In the late 1930s, some years after her marriage with Covarrubias, she began to paint basically portraits of friends, children and indigenous women, mostly in goauche, sometimes in oil. Her first portrait was painted in 1938, of Mexican actress Dolores del Río while another famous work is a large oil of Mexican singer/actress María Félix. Rolanda considered herself as neo-figurative as we see in this wonderful self-portrait from 1940. The artist depicts herself in a style reminiscent of folk art with colors that are "flat' and solid more than subtly shaded although the brushstrokes are visible to create texture. It conveys a sense of dignity mixed with beauty and intrigue. Depicted from the shoulders up, she has magnificent dark brown skin, short dark hair pulled back neatly, and a calm direct expression. Her features are somewhat simplified and idealized with especially large and expressive light-brown almond eyes and full burgundy lips. Atop her head, she wears a symbolic stylized headpiece with brownish-gold leopard-skin petals. On the left edge of the white canvas is another symbolic element of a small black fly on the wall.
Autorretrato by Rosa Rolanda (American) - Gouache on paper / c. 1940 - Museo Colección Blaisten (Mexico City) #womeninart #femaleartist #womensart #womanartist #womenartists #RosaRolanda #rolanda #Gouache #MuseoColecciónBlaisten #art #artwork #selfportrait #portraitofawoman #artist #autorretrato
