La Sorpreza 1850 Analysis Essay
José Agustín Arrieta’s painting titled La Sorpreza, 1850 presents viewers with an immediate inclination to know what the grand surprise as suggested in the title is in the gestural array of the characters in the painting. The painting was created in 1850, and is now located in Museo Nacional de Historia, INAH, Mexico City. Oil paint is used to create this painting on a 69.5 x 93 cm canvas. This artwork is considered a costumbrista¬ painting, depicting socio-racial scenes and classifications. Using varying contrasting visual elements, movement, and focal point emphasis, the artist paints a scene representative of the differences in social rankings, racial mixture, and roles of everyday Mexican life.
The painting was created in 1850, during a time of Mexico’s adaptation to modernity where women’s public participation in society was restricted. José Agustín challenges the governments limitations by painting women in his scenes as dominant figures of power, contrary to the domestic ideals’ elites envisioned. The composition of the painting displays a variety of characters ranging from different social classes, racial origins, and occupations outside of a marketplace and pulque tavern. Each character is painted in their own costume, expressive of their role in the scene and in society. Beginning on the left side of the composition, the fair-skinned woman holding a green umbrella dressed elegantly in black, represents the bourgeois elite class along with a couple similarly dressed behind her. Beneath the elite woman, are two dogs of opposite coat colors, black and white, fighting alluding to interracial casta paintings and racial blending.
For example, the placement of the characters in the scene which are seated, or kneeling imply them as the poorest lower class in Mexico; through their loose dull colored attire and proportions, compared to the figures in the foreground of the image. In the center of the image, the barefoot light-skinned woman wearing a blue head scarf, and a cotton white dress is tugged at by a barefoot messy-dressed child which appears to be her son. Behind the woman in the center stands her darker-skinned partner pulling her away at the arm away forcefully away from altercation on the left. The artist emphasizes the relationship of the mestizo family, by placing them in the center of the painting, alongside indigenous and criollo members of the city.
In the background are two elderly women seated on the floor outside the doors of a pulqueria. A woman towards the right of the painting rides on top of a mule– an offspring between a donkey and a horse, also representing mixture of species as the main theme in the painting. Two characters poorly dressed in baggy; darker clothing are seen on the right side of the frame with a woman kneeling at the feet of the man almost begging. Notably in the foreground right of the image, is a barefoot messily dressed man, laying scattered against a stack of wooden flats, depicting drunken behavior from pulque– a fermented alcohol made from the sap of mamey fruit.
The artist draws viewers’ attention using opposing lines and shapes as seen in the body language of the woman in the center of the image facing left, contrary to the woman on the right of the image moving in the opposite direction. An ovular shape is formed on the left side of the composition, by the curvature from their hips to their faces, unifying their intense direct eye-contact. A sense of action is felt with the squabbling of the two dogs in the bottom foreground of the frame, as the darker dog overpowers the white dog. Ironically, the dogs’ coats match the colors of the two main women in the painting, except that the woman dressed in white seems to be the more aggressive one. The family in the center create a dynamic composition as the young boy pulls at his mother’s dress attempting to calm her anger, while his dad also pulls the mother in the opposite direction trying to stop her from launching forward, and the woman twists away from both urgently. This creates an emotion of suspense signifying a confrontation is about to erupt. The diagonal inclinations of the characters bodies create an asymmetrical balance in the image.
An emphasis of the woman with the blue head scarf, is implied through the size of her character in relation to others in view. She is painted in the same size as her male partner and the bourgeoise woman on the left with the green umbrella, perhaps suggesting a dispute between the two women, and the husband as the mediator. Racial differences are seen in the genre painting through the differences in skin tone, and apparel but most importantly in the position of the culturally mixed family in the center. There are two light-skinned Mexican women in the painting except that one of them is product of Spanish-migration and the other of Indigenous romantic partnership resulting in the racial mixing of Indigenous and Spaniard cultures.
Arrieta’s use of emphasis in highlighting characters traits, allows viewers to understand the roles of social classes in Mexico symbolized by their placement and proportions. The action implied by the movement in the composition helps to suggest an uncomfortable dispute between the two main women in the painting, which also suggests racial divide and tension between the groups. Through the artists use of complementary features, he creates a unique layout narrative of the consequences of racial mixing. Overall, the painting entices the viewer to question the cultural backgrounds of each character and their relationship to one another and Mexican identity.
