ANGEL BOTELLO (PUERTO-RICAN 1913-1986)

ANGEL BOTELLO (PUERTO-RICAN 1913-1986)
Ma Femme Haitienne, circa 1950
oil on burlap
60.5 x 54 cm (23 7/8 x 21 1/4 in.)

PROVENANCE
Acquired by Maurice Needham, the United States Charge d’Affairea of the American Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti during the 1950s
Thence by descent in the family

We are grateful to Juan Botello for his help in the authentication of the painting as by his father's hand, and his assistance in cataloguing this work.

LOT NOTES
Angel Botello was a Spanish Puerto-Rican artist, who worked in Latin-American Post-Modernism. After four years at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Botello returned to Spain and participated in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). As a result, he had to flee the country and eventually immigrated to the Dominican Republic, where he was warmly welcomed. In 1944 Botello moved to Haiti and met his wife. In order to capture the beauty of island life, "the Caribbean Gauguin" used vivid, bold colors. To reside permanently, Botello and his family chose San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1953. The 33 years that Botello lived in Puerto Rico are considered the most prolific period in his artistic career. After his death in 1986, Angel Botello left behind an impressive legacy of oil paintings, lithographs, linocuts, serigraphs and bronze sculptures.