The Franciscan and the Indian (aka: Franciscano; El Fraile y el Indio; The Franciscan) by Jose Clemente Orozco

The Franciscan and the Indian  (aka: Franciscano; El Fraile y el Indio; The Franciscan) by Jose Clemente Orozco

The Franciscan and the Indian (aka: Franciscano; El Fraile y el Indio; The Franciscan)

Jose Clemente Orozco

Title

The Franciscan and the Indian (aka: Franciscano; El Fraile y el Indio; The Franciscan)

 
Artist
Year
1929 / 1930 
Technique
lithograph 
Image Size
12 3/8 x 10 1/2" image 
Signature
pencil, lower right 
Edition Size
reverse counter proof, outside the editions of 50 and/or 100 
Annotations
in pencil, "Shaped by", upper right corner sheet, and "16 x 19", lower right margin 
Reference
Marrozzini 15, Hopkins 2 
Paper
antique-white wove 
State
counter proof 
Publisher
Delphic Studios, New York 
Inventory ID
BIHO101 
Price
SOLD
Description

One of 5 lithographs done on zinc plates and printed by George C. Miller in October of 1929 and exhibited at Weyhe Galleries. All 5 were directly based on murals Orozco had done at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria in Mexico City between 1923 and 26.

Hopkins notes on page 19: "A few of Orozco's lithographs were curiously printed in reverse. Justino Fernandez knows of no aesthetic motivation whatever. A few of these are signed, and hence, known to have had Orozco's authorization and approval. This occasional 'trick' printing was probably for the benefit of a few steady collectors. In most cases, the number of reverse copies is unknown, and evidence proves that they rarely matched the quality of the original edition."

One reason for these counterproofs might be that the image of the counterproof image would match the direction of the original drawing on the zinc plate. This image was a variant on a three panel theme and is the only image Orozco did that dealt with colonial Mexican history. It is an image that was possibly done to encourage an American audience.

The regular edition of this work can be found numbered as both 50 and 100, the accepted edition size. Not all impressions were signed.