Jesús Reyes Ferreira (Mexican, 1882-1977), Con las manos vacías

(With empty hands), gouache on tissue paper, signed at upper left, presented under glass in a period frame.
Sight size 29 3/4 x 19 1/4 in.; Frame dimensions 36 3/4 x 26 1/2 in.
Jesús "Chucho" Reyes Ferreira was born to a wealthy family in Guadalajara. His interest in art and decoration was influenced by his father, a lawyer, teacher and author of Las bellas artes en Jalisco (1882). Ferreira held several varied jobs, including an apprenticeship with a printing house, a decorator for high society weddings and funerals and as a window dresser for a well-known glassworks.

In 1938, "Chucho" Reyes moved to Mexico City where he acquired a large house near the Galería de Arte Mexico. Here, he opened his own artist's studio in the courtyard and dealt in antiques. He began experimenting with various materials and techniques. By the 1940s, Reyes' work, rooted in Mexican folk ways with a decidedly modern and unique slant, was being collected and admired by Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Helena Rubinstein, Picasso, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Marc Chagall and others.
Maurice Henry Roth, Silver Spring, Maryland

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Tear to sheet at center above lower hand; drying crackle and some flaking to pigment; not examined out of the frame.