CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

In the late 1910s and 1920s the Ecuadorian painter Camilo Egas
(1883/86-1962) made Indians the main subject of his painting. Egas was one
of the first Ecuadorian painters to paint Indians in the twentieth century, pre-
dating the emergence of the movement Indigenismo in the 1930's. The 1910s and
1920s period in Egas's work is crucial because it marks a transition between two
modes of representation of Indians in Ecuadorian art: Romantic Costumbrismo
of the nineteenth century and Indigenismo of the 1930s and 1940s. Egas's paint-
ing differed from the first type in that it no longer represented Indians as exotic
curiosities and from the second in that it lacked its radical political and social
concern. Thus, the study of this period in Egas's work sheds some light on his
later work as well as on that of the Indigenistas,
Egas's work of this period shows Egas's development away from the ex-
oticism of Costumbrismo and Romantic Indianisrno to an expression closer to the
politically concerned Indigenismo. By concentrating mainly in a commission Egas
received from the prominent Ecuadorian archeologist Jacinto .Iijon y Caarnafio
(1890-1950) in 1922, in this thesis we study the thematic sources of Egas's first
depictions of Indians. A study which will help elucidate Egas's attitude towards
Indians and his intentions in portraying them in his paintings. A change in his

1
 2

own attitude towards the Indian is detected in the study of the mid 1920s works
which he did after his encounter with modernist art forms in Europe. Though
not overtly political in content they begin to manifest an intense preoccupation
for the situation of the Indian within the mainstream society.
In order to place Egas's paintings of Indians in historical context we first
study the changing social, racial, and cultural attitudes towards Indians through
the history of Ecuadorian and Latin American art and literature from the Spanish
conquest to 1920. Thus the situation of Egas's work within the Indianist tradition,
as the representation of Indians without social or political connotations is referred
to, will be elucidated. References to the stylistic sources of Egas's first depictions
of Indians are made to show their connection with Spanish Modernismo, in the
paintings of the Jij6n y Caamaiio commission, and with European Modernist
styles, in the mid 1920s works. The Spanish term Modernismo is used to refer
to the Spanish equivalent to Symbolism and Art Nouveau, styles that affected
the Spanish and Latin American visual arts and literature. The English term
modernism is used to refer to avant-garde movements.
The study of Egas's paintings of Indians is important for several reasons.
They reflect first, on the current attitudes towards Indians; second, on social and
cultural issues then affecting Ecuadorian society; and third, and most importantly,
they point to a transitional moment in Egas's own work and in Ecuadorian art
in general from a Romantic perception of Indians to a concern for their social
situation.
Despite the importance of Camilo Egas's late 1910s and 1920s work
within his own ceuvre and within the development of Ecuadorian art in general,
his work has not been studied systematically; neither has been the type of In-
dianismo that developed in the first quarter of the twentieth century in Latin
 3

_- erica, and to which Egas's work belongs. Since Egas never wrote about his
o ,most of the information used in this analysis was based on art reviews
-:nolished in contemporary newspaper and magazines. Biographical information
particularly difficult to find. A first attempt at compiling that information
~ done by the Museo del Banco Central del Ecuador, which published it in
-' e catalogue Camilo Egas in 1978.1 More biographical information on Egas was
vailable to the author through interviews with the widow of the artist, Claire
~<Ta-sRichards, as well as through friends of his, particularly the Ecuadorian
ptor Jaime Andrade. In addition, through Claire Egas Richards I was able to
- nsult articles that appeared in Ecuadorian publications of short duration and
'ailable today only in a few Ecuadorian archives. Further, several manuscript
llections that contain information on Egas and his work were consulted. From
- e Archives of American Art most of the information related to the artist's New
'ork period was drawn. However, some information relevant to the earlier pe-
_iod was also found. The Archives of the Museum of Modern Art in New York
and the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America in Washington D.C. were also
consulted. Catalogues, photographs and articles relevant to the period studied in
-his thesis were found in the latter.
Information about Egas, his contemporaries, and their activities in Ecua-
dor during the 1910s and 1920s is almost non-existant. Some information is found,
owever, in Nicolas Delgado's Origenes del erie ecuatoriano, in Jorge A. Diez's
a pintura moderna en el Ecuador, in Jose Alfredo Llerena's La pintura ecuato-
riana del siglo veinte, in Salvat's Arte conrernporaneo de Ecuador, and in Jose
1 Museo del Banco Central, Camilo Egas (Quito: Museo del Banco Central del Ecuador,
1978). A revised version of this biographical information appeared in the 1980 catalogue,
published in the occassion of the founding of the Museo Camilo Egas, by the Banco Central del
Ecuador.
 4

Maria Vargas's Historia del arte ecueioruuio.' The greatest value of these ac-
counts is found in their recognition of Egas and his contemporaries as important
to the development of the history of Ecuadorian art. These works are, however,
limited to general commentaries on the artist. Furthermore, most of them discuss
Egas's work in the context of Indigenismo and in relation to the influence of the
Mexican muralists on the latter; as we will see in this thesis the Mexican muralists
had very little impact on Egas's work of the 1920s, though they certainly had on
that of the Indigenistas in the 1930s.
For the discussion of Indianismo two works were consulted. Aida Come-
tta Manzoni's El indio en la poesia de America espanola and Concha Melendez's
La novela indianista en Hispanoamerica (1832-1889).3 Although Cometta Man-
zoni and Melendez concentrate on the study of the development of Indianismo in
literature, some to the categories they use were applied in the current work to the
study of Indianismo in the visual arts. However, we deviate from the methodol-
ogy used by them to concentrate on the specific thematic sources of Indianismo
as particularly seen in the work of Camilo Egas.
On literary Indigenismo the Peruvian critics are the most thorough and
unbiased. Particularly important are the writings of Antonio Cornejo Polar."
Except for short discussions on art surveys, such as Mirko Lauer's Introducci6n
2Nicolas Delgado, Origenes del arte ecuatoriano (Quito: Imprenta de la Universidad Central,
1938); Jorge A. Diez, La pintura moderna en el Ecuador (Quito: Talleres Gr aficos de educacion,
1938); Jose Alfredo Llerena, La pintura ecuatoriana del siglo veinte (Quito: Imprenta de la
Universidad, 1942); Salvat Editores, Arte coatemporeneo de Ecuador, vol. 4 of Historia del
arte ecuatoriano (Quito: Salvat Editores Ecuatoriana, S.A., 1977); Jose Maria Vargas, Historia
del arte ecuatoriano (Quito: Editorial Santo Domingo, 1964).
3 Aida Cometta Manzoni, El indio en la poesfa de America espanola (Buenos Aires: J.
Torres, 1939); Concha Melendez, La novela indianista en Hispetioemerice (1832-1889) (Madrid:
Imprenta de la Libreria y Casa Editorial Hernando S.A., 1934).
4 Antonio Cornejo Polar, "La novela indigenista: un genero contradictorio," Texto crftico
(Mexico) 5, no. 14 (July-September 1979): 58-70; Antonio Cornejo Polar Literaturaysociedad
en el Peru: debate Antonio Cornejo Polar et al (Lima: Hueso Humero, 1981).
 5

ala pintura peru ana del siglo veinte,5 Indigenismo in the fine arts has not been
studied. Thus an analysis of Egas's paintings of Indians of the 1910s and 1920s
is important for it is not only a first attempt to systematically study the work
of Egas but also because it points to the sources of Indianismo in the 1910s and
1920s and of Indigenismo in the 1930s.

5Mirko Lauer, Introducci6n ala pintura peruana del siglo veinte (Lima: Mosca Azul Editores,
1976).
 CHAPTER 2

THE IMAGE OF THE INDIAN IN ART AND LITERATURE: A

HISTORICAL REVIEW

Egas's representation of Indians in the 1910s and 1920s is part of a tra-

::'~:ionof representation of Indians that goes back to the time of the Spanish
: onquest. Through history, this representation in the Latin American arts has
::-irrored the current attitudes towards Indians. During the Colonial period they
-~,-ere
portrayed either as savages, as innocent children, as part of the exotic Amer-
.can landscape, or as an abstract ideal extrinsic to their nature. Most of these
representations ignored the Indian's cultural and human values. It is not until
~:::'elate 1800s that the social situation of Indians began to be questioned. By the
~930s this preoccupation took on a political dimension.
The term Indianismo is used to describe most representations of Indi-
zns until the emergence of Indigenismo, in Peru and Bolivia in the 1920s, and
:::::Ecuador in the 1930s. According to Concha Melendez Indianismo refers to
any representation of Indians limited to showing compassion and pity, which
::::ay range from exoticist portrayals of Indians to a recognition of their social
problerns.! Notwithstanding, Indianismo does not suggest any solutions to the
1Melendez, 13; all subsequent citations are to the following edition: Rio Piedras: Ediciones
::'e la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1961.

6
 7

social problems of Indians." On the other hand, Indigenismo introduces social

concern and confronts the Indian problem by denouncing it and calling for a
solution.i' With Indigenismo, Indians begin to be seen as marginal members of
society.
The work done by Camilo Egas during the late 1910s and early 1920s
represents a moment in the history of Indianismo, one which bridges between the
Romantic Indianismo of the nineteenth century and the Indigenismo of the 1930s.
Though it still shows an interest in the customs and everyday life of Indians, it
already exhibits a concern for their culture and human values. However, its lack
of political concern separates it from the later Indigenismo. The study of the
tradition of representation of Indians from the conquest to 1920, is important
because it places Egas's first depictions of Indians as part, and indeed as a result,
of this development.
Following Melendez's definition of Indianismo, the development of In-
dianismo from the conquest to 1920 is analyzed stressing the changes in social
and cultural attitudes towards Indians as reflected in the arts. The development
of Indianismo during the Colonial period is briefly summarized focusing, instead,
on nineteenth century Indianismo where the most direct roots of the Indianismo
that developed during the first decades of the twentieth century are found. vVe
discuss the movement towards nationalism experienced in Latin America during
the nineteenth century as reflected in the arts in the use of local subject matter.
The turn of the century changes in attitude towards Indians from curiosity or
compassion towards them to a concern for their social situation is then analyzed.
Finally, we summarize the return to an idealized depiction of Indians and the
2Cornejo Polar, Literatura y sociedad, 36.
3Ibid., 36-37.
 8

parallel development of a social consciousness by the 1910s. Although our main

concern lies in the development of Indianismo in Ecuador, references to the Latin
American cultural context as well as to European influences are made to show
the evolution of Indianismo in Ecuador as part of a larger movement that affected
the whole Latin American continent.

2-1 The Image of the Indian in the Colonial Period

During the Colonial period (from c.1492 to c.1820) Indians were depicted
in the arts as part of the descriptions of the newly discovered continent. It is there-
fore in the Conquest chronicles, and their illustrations, where Indians were most
often represented. On the other hand, representations of Indians are scarce in
painting, sculpture, and poetry given the latters' predominantly religious charac-
ter. An exception is the tradition of Indianista poetry begun by Alonso de Ercilla
y Zuniga (1533-1594) in the sixteenth century; although never mainstream, it
served as the building block for subsequent Indianista poetry.
Ercilla y Zuniga and Fray Bartolome de Las Casas (1474-1566) served
as models for Colonial and, to a lesser extent, Romantic Indianista perception
and expression in the arts throughout Latin America. Both wrote about Indians
during the sixteenth century expressing a benevolent attitude that would influence
later Indianista writing, both in America and in Europe. Las Casas's ideas are
summarized in his Brevlsima reiacion de la destruccion de las Indias (1552) and
in his Historia de las Indias (1520-1561),4 among other works. His Brevlsima
reiacion is one of the earliest works in which he openly denounced the cruelty
with which the Spanish landlords treated the Indian. This compassion towards
Indians was based on his benevolent conception of them. In Historia de las Indias
4Bartolome de Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, 2d ed., 3 vols., (Madrid: M. Aguilar, 1927).
 9

he described them as "gentes mans uet isimas, humilisimas, inermes y sin armas,
simplisimas'L'' Indeed, Las Casas perceived the Indian as an embodiment of good
and innocence."
Las Casas's ideas about Indians have their origins in a sermon given by
fray Antonio de Montesinos (late fifteen century-1540) in the Dominican Republic
in 1511.7 Montesinos condemned the Spanish encomenderos' ill treatment of
Indians." In August, 1514 Las Casas delivered a sermon in Puerto Rico in which
he supported Montesinos's defense." The 1514 sermon marked the beginning
of his campaign in defense of Indian rights which would last until his death.
Although his efforts influenced the reformation of the 'Leyes de Indias', they
did not succeed in bringing immediate change to the Indians's social situation
in Spanish America.l" However, his ideas and attitude continued to influence
Colonial and post-Independence policy making and artistic production.
It was Las Casas's view of Indians as inherently good, yet primitive and
defenseless, more than his literary style which greatly influenced later Indianista
works. One of Las Casas's closest followers in Colonial literature, Fray Juan de
Castellanos (1522-1607), continued Las Casas tradition by showing his sorrow for
the situation of Indians in his Elegias de Varones Ilustres de Indias (late sixteenth
century)Y Las Casas's attitude also influenced European thought, particularly
French from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, predating Rousseau's the-
5Prologue to Historia de 1as Indias vol. 1, 16; quoted in Melendez, 20.
6Melendez, 19.
7Ram6n Jesus Queralt6 Moreno, E1 pensamiento fi1os6fico-politico de Bartolome de 1as Casas
(Sevilla: Publicaciones de la escuela de estudios hispano-americanos de Sevilla, 1976), 62.
8Ibid.
9Ibid., 64.
l°It is believed, however, that he influenced the Spanish crown's decision to start trading
black slave's to America.
llCometta, El indio en la poesia, 21, 29-'30.
 l

10

:::-y of the 'noble savage'.12 Latin American Romanticism was strongly influenced

-=:.- Rousseau's ideas and accordingly developed an image of the Indian in which
:::e was depicted as an innocent and pure human being. Ironically then, the influ-

-=:lceof Las Casas's Indianismo was received by the Latin American Romantics
=ostly through their readings of French Romantic literature. The publication of
='as Casas's Historia de las Indias, published in 1875-1876 for the first time in
:iree centuries, greatly intensified the benevolent attitude towards Indians during
:ie latter half of the nineteenth century.l"
The importance of Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga as an influential Colonial
=:ldianista writer was second only to that of Las Casas. The style and subject
rna.tter of his poem La Araucana (1569) influenced Colonial and Romantic writers
:iroughout Latin America. In La Araucana Indians are not only the main char-
acters but they are also portrayed as human beings with feelings and virtues.l"
Ercilla depicted the Araucano Indians as courageous and strong. La Araucana
conveys Ercilla's sympathetic view of Indians, while highly idealizing them in re-
sponse to the stylistic canons of the Renaissance.P Such idealization is significant
when one considers that Ercilla's first hand knowledge of the Araucano Indians
came from his fighting against them as a soldier in the Spanish arrny.l"
While Las Casas's influence lay mostly on his attitude towards Indians,
Ercilla's encompassed attitude, style, and content. Not only the Indian types
::-epresented in La Araucana were used as models for later depictions of Indians,
12Las Casas's descriptions of Indians and the landscape in his Apologeiic« bistotie sumaria
1552-1561), (2 vols., (Mexico: Universidad Nacional Aut6noma de Mexico, 1967) ) beautifully
evoke nature and the natural state of human beings; it is this view of the Indian as totally
aarmonious with nature which anticipates Rousseau's ideas (Queralto, 360; Cometta, El indio
en la poesia, 28-29).
13Melendez, 20.
14Cometta, El indio en la poesia, 28-29.
15Ibid.,37.
16Ibid., 41.
 11

but they were also closely imitated during the Colonial and Romantic periods by
Spanish!" and American writers alike. In Latin America Ercilla's influence evolved
from works in which his story came to be reversed to glorify the Spaniards and
make manifest the barbarism of Indians to others in which Indians appeared as
symbols of independence.P El Arauco Domado (Lima 1596) by Pedro de Ofia
(1570-1643) is an example of the first case. Ercilla's story was modified by Ofia
to glorify as the hero the viceroy of Peru Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza rather than
the Indian."? On the other hand, in Siripo (1789), attributed to the Argentine
Manuel Jose de Lavarden (1754- c. 1810),20 Indians are symbols of insurrection.
They not only participate in the liberating process, but they are also freed from
Spanish oppressiori.P As it has been shown, Las Casas and Ercilla served as
building blocks of the Colonial Indianista perception and expression in the arts.
They continued to be influential during the post-Independence and Romantic
periods.

2-2 The Indian as Symbol of Independence

During the revolutionary years the image of the Indian served mostly as
a symbol of Independence. Although during the Colonial and Romantic periods
Indians were usually depicted as 'noble savages', a slight deviation from that
tradition took place in the period just before and during the wars of independence,
17In "The Attitude toward the Enemy in Sixteenth Century Spanish Narrative Poetry," The
Romantic Review (New York) (1925) John Van Horne summarizes the influence of Ercilla in
Spanish poetry (Ibid., 28-29).
18Ibid., 97-98, 120-124.
19Isaac J. Barrera, Histone de la literatura ecuatoriana (Quito: Editorial Casa de la Cultura
Ecuatoriana, 1960), 123-125.
20The manuscript of this work was lost in a fire in 1832. The references to it that we have
today are through the work of Enrique Garcia Velloso (Cometta, El indio en la poesia, 122).
21Ibid., 120, 122, 124.
 12

:::-omc.1780 to c.1830.
The first signs of Independence, by the late eighteenth century, brought
::.need for an image that would represent the newly Independent countries. Al-
:iough the revolution later proved to be a transfer of power from the Spanish
Crown to the American aristocracy, from which Indians gained nothing, hatred
.owards Spain made the revolutionaries find in the Indian a symbol of their new
.dentity: Thus the Indian became a symbol of Independence.P Since the artists
and writers of the period of Independence sought to provide the new countries
with an image that would be just as glorious as their Spanish past, they evoked
:he great pre-Columbian past. This exaltation also resulted from the current
anti-Spanish feeling. Once again the human nature of contemporary Indians was
.gnored by both politicians and intellectuals in favor of a more distant past that
was easier to accept.
Lavarderi's Siripo is one of the earliest literary works in which Indians
appeared as symbols of Independence. The prevalence, in Revolutionary writing,
of an utopian view of the pre-Columbian past can be seen in Canto a la victoria
de Junin (1825) by the Ecuadorian Jose Joaquin Olmedo (1784-1847). In this
poem, dedicated to Bolivar.P Olmedo intended to compliment Bolivar in his
final liberating campaigns of Junin and Ayacucho in Peru. Since Bolivar was
absent in the battle of Ayacucho, Olmedo makes use of a fantastic device to bring
Bolivar into the scene. He had the Inca Huayna Capac appear in the sky to chant
Bolivar's triumph at Junin and to announce the arrival of his army at Ayacucho.
By placing Bolivar and Huayna Capac together, Olmedo suggested that Bolivar
had finally liberated the empire that Huayna Capac consolidated and which the
22Ibid., 65.
23Uni6n Panamericana, Diccionario de la literatura latinoamericana: Ecuador (Washington
D.C.: Uni6n Panamericana, 1962), 53.
 13

Spaniards destroyed. This is one of Olmedo's few Indianista poems which, in

general, reflects more his Americanist feelings than a true interest in Indians.
Although, as an active participant in the process of Independence in Ecuador and
Peru Olmedo favored the formation of countries independent from the Spanish
crown, like many of his contemporaries he did not necessarily favor an egalitarian
type of government in which Indians would receive the same rights as those of
Spanish descent.P"
While Siripo and Canto a la victoria de Junin represent the contempo-
rary use of the image of the Indian as a symbol of an abstract ideal, two contem-
porary works present a less popular image: the conquered Indians. In the play
Tupac Amaro (early 1800s) Luis Ambrosio Morante (late eighteenth - early nine-
teenth centuries) narrated the 1781 Inca rebellion against the Spaniards.P Tupac

Amaro was influenced by Las Casas's benevolent attitude towards Indians and
particularly by his political activism.i" Indeed, in its activism Tupac Amaro is a
predecessor of the belligerent Indigenismo of the 1930s and 1940s. On the other
hand, the poetry of Mariano Melgar (1796-1815) has a very different character.
It neither presented Indians as revolutionary symbols nor denounced their social
and political situation. Yet its melancholic lyricism is closer to Indian poetry
and music than any Revolutionary or Romantic attempt. The lyrics that Melgar
wrote to accompany the music of Indian 'yaravies' have the same melancholy and
nostalgia that is usually identified with authentic Indian music. His sensitivity to
the Indian culture may be explained by the fact that Melgar was a mestizo who
24It is interesting, however, that in 1810 Olmedo requested the abolition of the Mitas (a
Colonial working system which led to the exploitation of Indians) in the Cadiz Courts of Spain
(Jose Joaquin Olmedo. Jose Joaquin de Olmedo: Poesia-Prosa, ed. Aurelio Espinosa P6lit
(Puebla: Editorial J. M. Cajica Jr. S. A., 1960),421-427).
25The rebellion was led by Tupac Amani, the son of the last surviving Inca in Peru who had
fled to the jungle soon after the conquest.
26Cometta, EI indio en la poesia, 144-147.
 14

lived in close contact with Indians in his native Arequipa.V Melgar's style and
force of expression was greatly admired by Peru's Indigenistas because they felt
Melgar expressed the Indian world from inside.

2-3 Romantic Images of the Indian: Exoticism vs. Americanism

With the end of the wars of Independence, the euphoria of the rev-
olution gave way to a calmer period in which Romanticism developed. Since
political independence from Spain had not brought automatic economic and cul-
tural independence from Europe, Spanish America became largely dependent on
France, a dependency which was nourished by the current anti-Spanish spirit.
France became Spanish America's main artistic and literary model during the
post-Independence period, thereby introducing Romanticism. The American Ro-
mantic Indianistas borrowed from the French Romantics not only their stereotypes
and style but also their attitudes towards Indians.
The identification of Romanticism with freedom included an element
of national identity. 28 The Romantic movement, therefore, corresponded with
the general movement towards the formation of the Latin American nationalities
during the second half of the nineteenth century. Thus the appearance of the
subject of Indians in Romantic art was in part a response to a quest for national
identity. During the post-Independence period the image of the Indian began
to appear in themes other than those evoking a historic past; Indians were now
portrayed as part of the local history and geography or as characters of local
legends and traditions.
27Ibid., 140-14l.
28Melendez, 14.
 15

2-3.1 European Imports

One of the most popular themes of European Romanticism was the depic-
tion of exotic lands and peoples, particularly those of Africa and the Middle East.
'With such an interest in the exotic, the unexploited lands of America and its In-
dians, were introduced into Romantic art and literature. Among those European
writers who popularized the image of the Indian in Romantic Latin America were
Voltaire (1694-1778), especially his Alzire (1736) and Candide (1759), and Jean
Francois Marmontel (1723-1799) and his Les Incas ou la destruction de l'empire
du Perou (1777).29 However, it was Jean Jacques Rousseau's (1712-1778) thought
and writings which were probably most influential in the formation of a new im-
age of the Indian in this part of the world. His concept of 'primitive' man as
forming a unity with nature is evident in most Indianista literature of the time.
And yet if Rousseau's own works, particularly his Social Contract (1761) were
very popular in Latin America.i'" his ideas were most readily diffused through
the literary works of Francois de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) and Jacques Henri
Bernardin de Saint Pierre (1737-1814).
Interestingly enough, the Indian models used by Chateubriand and Ber-
nardin de Saint Pierre were those popularized by Las Casas and Ercilla. Although
the influence of Ercilla in the nineteenth century filtered primarily through the
reading of his work and that of his followers, the influence of Las Casas's came
through the reading of Rousseau's writings and that of his followers, primarily
Chateaubriand and Bernardin de Saint Pierre's who expressed Las Casas's benev-
olent attitude towards Indians. The first Latin American Romantics, therefore,
were influenced by Las Casas through the French Romantics' perception of him.
29Ibid., 38-43.
30Ibid., 40-42.
 16

="as Casas's view of Indians became a direct influence in Latin America's Roman-
~~cIndianismo only when his Historia de las Indias was published for the first
.ime in the mid nineteenth century, coinciding with the height of Romanticism.i"
The main character of Chateaubriand's Atala (1801) served as the model
:')r most Indian types that developed in Indianista literature. Likewise, the de-
scriptions of nature found in Bernardin de Saint Pierre's Paul et Virginie (1787)
were the starting point for most Romantic literature in general and Romantic
-ndianismo in particular. Both Atala and Paul et Virginie are love stories which
.ake place in unexplored, exotic lands. Purity, innocence and uncontrollable
.:=,assionare the symbolic references of both the unexplored lands and their inhab-
.tants, The influence of Atala in Latin America, which can be traced back to its
::rst translation into Spanish by the Mexican poet fray Servando Teresa de Mier
~ 1801,32 is seen in the identification of Atala with chastity and melancholy, qual-
.ties that would identify Indians in subsequent Indianista literature. The tragedy
_-ltala (1822) by the Colombian Jose Fernandez Madrid (1784-1837) is the first
='atin American work to show Chateaubriand's influence.P" In Ecuador, Olmedo's
Cancion indiana34 follows almost literally a section of Atala.35
The second most important literary influence from French Romanticism
.a Latin America was the work of Bernardin de Saint Pierre. His Les harmonies
-ie la nature (1815) and Etude de la Nature (1784) were widely read by Latin
American writers; but his novel Paul ei Virginie had an even greater impact.
\Vhat the Romantic Indianistas found fascinating in Bernardin de Saint Pierre's
31Ibid., 20.
32Ibid., 48.
33Ibid., 49-50.
34Jose Joaquin Olmedo, Poesias Compietas, ed. Aurelio Espinosa P6lit (Mexico: Fondo de
Cultura Econ6mica, 1947), 158-160.
35Melendez, 49-50; Cometta, El indio en la poesia, 149.
--
17

-'.-::.rkwas his view of nature as the embodiment of the highest physical and moral
--:r:ues.36 Beautiful descriptions of nature in Paul et Virginie as well as its
=e:odramatic narrative tone are the most obvious elements that appeared in the
work of his Latin American followers.
Chateaubriand and Bernardin de Saint Pierre perceived the unexplored
7:orld and its inhabitants as a distant and exotic land free from the corruption of
~.':estern civilization. The Latin American writers and artists found themselves
;:riviledged to be able to observe, in their own lands, that exotic world. Ironically,
:'mvever, their observation and perception of that world remained as distant as
<:::.atof the Europeans. Since Romanticism stressed the observation of nature for
.aspiration, the Latin American Romantics chose to depict the lush and exotic
aspects of their land. Then, although they had used their own land as inspira-
~:on, their perception, and thus their depiction, of it was just as exotic as the
Europeans'e. Their sensibility was still European.

2-3.2 Juan Leon Mera: Distillation of European Influences and Local

Traditions

As in the rest of Latin America, the influence of Chateubriand and

Bernardin de Saint Pierre was strongly felt in Ecuador. This influence is pri-
marily found in Juan Leon Mera's (1832-1894) Indianista poetry and noveP7
:"lera admired Chateaubriand's style and believed that, unlike many Latin Amer-
ican writers, he had been able to create an 'American' poetry. He said that
"... Atala is a piece of American poetry cleverly transplanted by Chateaubriand
36Melendez, 45.
37Other Ecuadorian writers were also influence by Chateaubriand's Atala. For instance, in
the prologue to his Capitulos que se le olvidaron a Cervantes (1895), the polemic writer Juan
Montalvo (1832-1889) compared Chateaubriand's artistry to that of Cervantes ((Paris: Garnier,
:921),45).
 18

~o his own... literature." 38 The desire to create a truly original 'American' liter-
at ure lies behind Mera's Indianista work.
In the chronology of Latin American Romanticism Juan Leon Mera IS

_ late appearance. In Ecuador, however, he represents not only the height of

?.omantic Indianismo but also the building block for the development of later
~=.-pesof Indianismo. His most important work is, in fact, his Indianista prose
and poetry39 comprised in the poems collected in Melodies indigenas (1858),40
~2e poem La virgen del sol, 1eyenda indiana (1861),41 and the novel Curnanda,
:> un drama entre sa1vajes (1879).42 His ideas about Indianismo are summarized
::1 the preface to his Ojeada bist6rico-critica sobre 1a poesia ecuatoriana desde
,,'1 epoca mas remota basta nuestros dias (1868) and in the letters he wrote to
~2.eSpanish critic Juan Valera in response to his criticism of the Ojeada. In fact,
:::':5 work has to be read in the context of the ideas developed in the Ojeada and
~2e letters.
Mera's Indianismo is characterized by his use of Indian themes while
~:.s style and attitude remain foreign to the realities of the Indian world. Mera

o:lelievedthat the Latin American artists had to become aware of, and in their
work focus on, the natural and historical richness of their continent. Thus they
-.•rould produce a Latin American art and literature that was truly original and
38YIera, Ojeada hist6rico-critica sobre la poesia ecuatoriana des de su epoce mas remota hasta
z iestros dias (Quito: Imprenta de J. P. Sanz, 1868),427.
39Besides being a writer Mera was a political and literary theorist as well as a painter
0

~JThese poems appeared in several magazines and newspapers from 1858 to 1861 but re-
::-_ainedunpublished until 1887 when they were compiled in La virgen del sol, leyenda; Melodias
-., digenas, vol. 1 (Barcelona: Timbre Imperial, Secci6n Tipografica del Credito Catalan) (see
:::'is edition, XV); subsequent citations are to this edition.
~:In the 1887 edition, the poem's dedication is dated 1856.
~2Quito: Imprenta del Clero, 1879; subsequent citations are to the following edition: Quito:
=-:iSade la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1948.
--
19

::stinct from European literature.P That originality lay in the subject matter
::-ather than in the style. In order to accomplish his ideas, in La virgen del sol
:\Iera chose to depict an Indian theme of the time of the conquest when the
-glory of the Incas and the Schyris was eclipsing" .44 Mera's interest in the pre-
'=olumbian past responded to his interest in the 'unusual'. History, together with
.ocal traditions (legends, local customs, etc.), was one more 'interesting' element
:hat could be used in literature for the sake of 'exoticism'.
In Melodias indigenas, as in La virgen del sol, Mera developed his first
:ype of Indianismo in which the glorious pre-Columbian past was evoked. The
:haracters of both Melodias indigenas and La virgen del sol, leyenda indiana
are highly idealized conceptions of the Schyri and Inca nobility who were praised
oy Mera for their purity and courage. Although Mera's evocation of the pre-
Columbian civilizations was not new, his inclusion of the Schyris, the tribe that
inhabited the area of Quito before the Incas, was.
Although, as explained by Mera, his use of history and legends was only
incidental.P his depiction of the Schyris as the protagonists of his story is a man-
ifestation of his interest in history which responded, in part, to his nationalistic
aims. The Schyris were mentioned for the first time by the Ecuadorian historian,
the jesuit Juan de Velasco (1727-1792) in his Historia del Reina de Quito en la
America Meridional (1780s), published for the first time in its totality in 1841-
1844.46 Velasco considered the Schyris to be, with the Quitus,47 at the roots of
43Mera, La virgen del sol; Melodfas Indfgenas, VIII-X.
44Ibid., X.
45Ibid.
46See prologue to Juan de Velasco, Historia del Reina de Quito en la America Meridional, ed.
Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco (Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1981), XVII. Velasco was the first
to consult and compile, in a unified way, the many dispersed descriptions of pre-Columbian and
early Colonial Ecuador.
47The Quitus were the tribe that inhabited the area of Quito before the Schyris.
 20

Ecuadorian history. Since in Historia del Reino de Quito Velasco discussed the
history of Ecuador before the Incas, who had occupied Ecuador only for the last
sixty years before the Spanish Conquest, Velasco's history answered, for the first
time, the question of the origins of the history of Ecuador.Y'
In effect the popularity of Velasco during the second half of the nine-
teenth century is exemplified in Mera's recognition of Velasco's work as the source
of his stories.f" Mera's familiarity with Velasco at such an early date was due
to his close friendship with the historian Pedro Fermin Ceballos (1812-1893).
Though in 1870 Ceballos published Resumen de 1a Historie del Ecuador desde
su oxigen basta 184550 in which he summarized Velasco's account, Mera may have
already known of Velasco through conversations with Ceballos. Furthermore, that
Mera was aware of the historical research of the time is confirmed by the stylistic
and historical corrections that he made to the 1887 edition of La virgen del sol.
These corrections are based on the work of historians who had already questioned
some aspects of Velasco's Historia del Reino de Quito.
On the other hand Mera's use of local legends and customs is seen first
III his novel Cumanda and later in his Novelitas ecuatorianas (1909). In the
48Proof that this work helped establish a base for Ecuadorian nationality is found in the
polemic that arose soon after its publication. Its historical veracity was questioned as early
as 1902 by the historian Federico Gonzalez Suarez (1844-1917). Throughout the next two
decades archeological and historical research continued to doubt its veracity. The polemic
finally culminated in 1918 when a group of historians and archeologists requested the removal
of the 'story of the Schyris' from history textbooks. This event brought to light the fact that
the 'story of the Schyris', whether based on legend or factual evidence, could not be removed
from the history of Ecuador because it served as a symbol of Ecuadorian nationality. The
issues and people involved in the polemic are discussed by Pfo Jaramillo Alvarado in his E1
indio ecuatoriano: contribucioti a1 estudio de 1a sociologie indoamericana (Quito: Imprenta y
encuadernacion nacionales, 1925), 55-72. See also Jacinto J ijon y Caamaiio, "Examen critico
de la veracidad de la Historia del Reino de Quito, del P. Juan de Velasco, de la Compafiia de
Jesus," Bo1etin de la Sociedad Ecuatoriana de Estudios Americanos (Quito), no. 1 (June-July
1918): 33-63.
49La virgen del sol; Melodias Indigenas, 382, note 2 and 387, note 2l.
50Lima: Imprenta del estado, 1870.
 21

~rologue to Curnanda Mera explained that the subject of the novel was party
:ased on historical and legendary events which, again, were used only as points
= -= departure for a totally fictitious story. 51 In Curnanda Mera narrated the story
=-= the son of a missionary who fell in love with a beautiful Indian woman in the

:"..:.::lgles
of Ecuador. At the end of the novel the reader is told that Cumand a
~ actually a white girl who grew up in an Indian environment; thus, Mera's
=- :tempt to give the Indian race qualities of physical beauty is nullified: The
,?iritual beauty is Indian while the physical remains white.
The duality of Mera's attitude towards Indians responded, first, to his
~erception of Indians as part of an unexplored nature of untouched beauty yet
,::11 uncontrolled by men. For Mera Indians were inherently good and innocent,
":"~t without the control of civilization, they would fall back into a 'primitive'
.ondition.V His belief in the possibility of such a regression is exemplified, for
:.=.stance, in the rebellion with which Curnanda begins. According to Mera the
.::.atred of Indians towards the white population expressed in that rebellion was
::.direct result of the evacuation of the Jesuit missionaries from Ecuador in 1767
""':iichforced Indians to return to their 'natural savagery,.53 Thus, Indians (of the
eastem lowlands) needed to be civilized by the Spaniards. In the fifth chapter of
51Cometta, El indio en la poesia, 168.
52Melendez, 159.
53Ibid.
Curnanda, Mera said:

Vuestra alma tiene mucho de la naturaleza de vuestros bosques: se la

limpia de las malezas que la cubren y la simiente del bien germina y crece
en ella con rapidez; pero faltele la afanosa mano del cultivador, y al punto
volvera a su primitivo est ado de barbarie ... Vosotros no sois culpables de
esto; 10 es la sociedad civilizada, cuyo egoismo no le permite echar una
ojeada benefice hacia vuestras regiones ... 54

Even if he openly criticized the methods of conquest used by the Spaniards he

believed that in spite of the aboriginal cultures' advancement at the time of the
conquest, they had been "... substituted by [a culture] ... of much greater value,
... , the Christian." 55 Mera's attitude towards Indians may have also reponded to
his strong Spanish background. On the other hand, although the influence of the
French Romantics helped Mera become aware of his surroundings and the native
people of his country, partially as a result of their influence his view remained
European. Mera re-discovered Indians in the same way that Chateaubriand and
Bernardin de Saint Pierre had done: as exotic and 'interesting'. His purpose, as
that of the French, was to evoke the purity and unspoiled beauty of that nature
particularly since he saw himself as a man living in a 'modern', 'civilized' world 56
and the natives as living in a primitive, savage one that though charming, needed
to be civilized.
Mera represents a Romantic attempt to re-evaluate Indians. As a man
of his time, his appreciation was ruled by the ideas that dominated then: the late
nineteenth century interest in the local culture of Ecuador which responded both
to the development of nationalism begun at the time of the wars of Independence
and to the development of historiography as seen in the works of Juan de Velasco
54Ibid., 168; Mera, Cuinende, 4l.
55Mera, Ojeada, 529.
56Mera, La virgen del sol; Melodies indfgenas, XIV).
-
23

3.11dPedro Fermin Ceballos, of which Mera was aware. In addition the fascination
with French Romanticism contributed to the attitude with which the local culture
was perceived. Indeed the French Romantics thirst for exoticism is mirrored in
':'Iera's interest in the Ecuadorian Indians. His work expressed the initial stage in
the appreciation of Indians which at this point was based solely in a superficial

interest in Indians as 'different' from the mainstream Ecuadorian society. Later

this appreciation would be extended to a human dimension and by the 1930s and
1940s it was to encompass the Indians' social and economic dimensions. The
exoticism evident in Mera's portrayals of Indians would decrease as the search
for a national identity became more concrete. As nationalism culminated in the
1930s, Indianismo turned into Indigenismo. The Indigenista movement of the
1930s and 1940s is, in fact, a response to the then well developed nationalism.

2-3.3 Jose Joaquin Pinto: The Indian in 'Costumbrista' Painting

The work of Juan Leon Mera is the most representative example of In-
dianismo in Ecuadorian literature. In the visual arts a parallel is found in the
Costumbrista paintings of Jose Joaquin Pinto (1842-1906). Although in his paint-
ings Pinto explored many different genres: landscape painting, portraiture, his-
toric, religious, and mythological painting, his most important contribution to
nineteenth century Ecuadorian art was his interest in the everyday life of the
country people as reflected in his Costumbrista drawings and paintings. 57 'Within
his Costumbrista work he depicted the customs of Indians.
His first Constumbrista work, Indio de la Maqdolena; dates from 1866.58
57Costumbrismo can be defined as genre painting or painting of scenes of popular life.
58That same year he did a slightly different watercolor of the same title. The original litho-
graph was used later as model for his 1901 Indio de la Magdalena published in his Album
de personajes populares (1899-1901) (Museo del Banco Central, Joaquin Pinto: exposici6n
antol6gica, (Quito: Museo del Banco Central del Ecuador, 1983-1984), n.p.).
 24

I: is not until the 1880's, however, that he concentrated his efforts in his Cos-
:umbrista production. Pinto's Costumbrista stamps serve as a type of dictionary
of the different characters of the Ecuadorian society of the end of the nineteenth
century. His characters, taken from both the urban and rural environments, are
presented as curiosities or as part of the Ecuadorian folklore. Thus, the Indian
was treated by Pinto as any other curious character of the Ecuadorian society.
Since most of these works depict the various occupations of the popular classes, to
'which the Indian belonged, Pinto's objective depiction of them gives light to the
social situation of the time. His stamps portray Indians that are ragged and dirty
and Indians that carry heavy bundles as if they were burden animals; Cabesirillo
(1889) (Fig. 1) depicts an Indian boy, probably of an Indian village, mounted
on a bull carrying a sling on his shoulder. In Orejas de palo (1904) (Fig. 2) a
blind Indian carrying a barrel is represented. This scene probably takes place
in the city where one of the most common occupations of Indians was that of
carrying bundles. In his work Pinto usually depicted the Indian who migrated
to the cities. Barredor (1900) (Fig. 3) depicts the very common occupation of
the Indian as a sweeper of Quito's streets. Although most of Pinto's depictions
of Indians dealt with their occupations in the city, some show Pinto's interest in
differenciating between the diverse ethnic groups. Indio de Chinchamayo 'Peru'
(1900) (Fig. 4), represent two Indians from the eastern lowlands of Peru. Incas
de Chagllas (c. 1900) (Fig. 5), Nay6n vendedor de chaguarqueros (1906) (Fig. 6),
Longo de Napo, 'Archidona' (1900) (Fig. 7), and Indio Zambiza (longo) (1890)
(Fig. 8), suggest both ethnic differences as well as the occupations identified with
a specific ethnic group.
Juan Leon Mera's own work probably served as major incentive to Pinto's
interest in the local customs during the 1880s; later, it would have a definite influ-
 25

ence in Pinto's Album de Personajes Populares which he did with the intension
of illustrating Mera's Antologfa ecuatoriana: cantares del pueblo ecuatoriano;
cornpiiacion forrnada por Juan Leon Mera ... precedida de un estudio sobre ellos,

ilustrada con notas acerca dellenguaje del pueblo y seguida de varias antigual-
1as curiosas (1892) in which Mera compiled and studied Ecuadorian folk poetry.r''
Indeed Pinto copied some of the ballads compiled by Mera and wrote comments
about them.60 Pinto must have been fascinated by Mera's work since it was the
literary counterpart of the popular culture he had been observing for so long. A
complete depiction of that culture could only be achieved by combining its visual
and oral elements as he attempted to do by illustrating Mera's work.61
In addition, as a contemporary of Mera, Pinto lived in a period of great
political convulsion in which the Ecuadorian nationality was beginning to take
shape. Like Mera, Pinto's interest in the Ecuadorian landscape, popular types,
and archeology are a reflection of the time's developing nationalism and the self-
conscious feeling of being 'Ecuadorian'. Pinto's greatest contribution to the cur-
rent spirit of nationalism is seen in his choice of subject matter. His landscapes
and his Costumbrista paintings and drawings are reflective of a strong interest
in the locale as are his drawings of pre-Columbian objects made to illustrate the
archeological reports of Federico Gonzalez Suarez62 and his detailed depictions of
59Quito: Imprenta de la Universidad Central del Ecuador, 1892.
60This notes are written on a letter envelope that has been dated by the Museo del Banco
Central as of c.1892 (Joaquin Pinto: exposici6n antol6gica, n.p.).
61 At the time of the exhibition Joaquin Pinto: exposicion antol6gica, the Museo del Banco
Central presented a new edition of Mera's Antologia ecuatoriana: cantares del pueblo ecuato-
riano illustrated with Pinto's works acknowledging Pinto's desire, a desire which Mera most
possibly would have corresponded.
62In collaboration with his wife Eufemia Berrio, Pinto illustrated Gonzalez Suarez's: Estudio
Historico sobre los Caiiaris pobladores de la antigua Provincia del Azuay (1878) (Cuenca: Publi-
caciones de la Universidad de Cuenca, 1965); Atlas Arqueol6gico (1892); Estudio Hisiotico sobre
los Aborigenes de Imbabura y del Carcbi (1901). See Joaquin Pinto: Exposici6n Antol6gica,
n.p.
--
26

Ecuadorian animals and plants.

Mera's and Pinto's ceuvre are the main examples of Romantic India-
nismo in Ecuador. Their work represents the early moments of are-evaluation
of the Ecuadorian popular culture of which the Indian was part of. Thus their
work served as points of departure for the re-evaluation of the Indian within the
Ecuadorian society. While they viewed the Indian as a curiosity and as part
of the interesting Ecuadorian folklore, their initial preoccupation for the locale
would lead the following generations to take a critical stance towards the complex
situation of the Ecuadorian society.
Romantic Indianismo, as exemplified by the writer Mera and the painter
Pinto, developed in the context of three lines of thought that influenced the way
Indians were perceived: the Conservatives' integrational education program, the
Liberals 'second liberation' ideal, and the interest in the locale, all of which were
part of the evolving nationalism. With Independence the problem of national
unity began to be posed. The Conservative criollos who came into power with
independence believed that the Indians' lack of education was the main obsta-
cle to the creation of a unified 'nation' and therefore they had to be educated.
However, the educational program was based on the criollo's underlying prejudice
towards Indians. The Spaniards' contempt of the criollos of Colonial times was
now mirrored in the criollos' own attitude towards Indians after independence.
The criollos saw Indians as ignorant and even inferior beings who, perhaps with
the help of education, could become more like themselves or the Spaniards. Thus,
education was seen as the only way to assimilate the 'masses' into the dominant
society. However, since the method of how the program of total education was
to be achieved was never discussed, the educational program remained mainly
theoretical.
 27

The second line of thought that influenced the image of the Indian in
Romantic Indianismo was the liberal criollos' idea of 'second liberation'. The Lib-
erals, who did not attain power with Indepedence, saw the continuing exploitation
of Indians as a proof that Independence had not brought a total liberation to the
Latin American countries thus a 'second liberation' had to take place. Although
the 'second liberation' myth dominated the nineteenth century liberal thought,
the image of the Indian was used, once again, as a rhetorical tool for the Liberals'
own ambition for power.
A third influence on Romantic Indianismo was the interest in the locale
that arose, partly, as a result of the development of nationalism. This interest
in the locale brought a necessary attention to the Indian. As a result of the pre-
occupation with the problem of national identity, and to some extent due to the
influence of Positivism, during the second part of the nineteenth century, the na-
tional geography, history, ethnography, and natural environment of the different
Latin American countries began to be studied. Indians were rediscovered by the
Romantics as part of their 'rediscovery' of their own land. As they depicted their
countries' natural environment, they depicted the customs of Indians. While na-
tionalism provided the incentive to concentrate on Indians as symbols of the local
environment, Las Casas's perception of them as naturally good and innocent,
and the criollos' paternalistic prejudice against them, provided the attitude with
which they were to be looked at. Thus the oppressor/ oppressed dichotomy exis-
tant in the social and political disciplines was reflected in the arts. Mera's oeuvre
is a prime example of this duality. His depiction of Indians was based on the
combination of the new sense of nationalism -that led him to focus on what was
most indigenous to his country: the Indians- with the criollos' view of Indians as
uncivilized and ignorant beings who needed the Europeans to overcome their lim-
 28

itations, and finally with Las Casas humanitarian perception of them as naturally
good and innocent. Thus Mera's work, as quintessentially Romantic Indianista,
exemplifies the deep contradictions of the mid and late nineteenth century im-
age of Indians as developed within the context of the opposing Conservative and
Liberal views.

2-4 Indianismo as a Critical Tool at the Turn of the Century

As Romantic Indianismo climaxed by the last quarter of the nineteenth

century, its contradictions began to be questioned. By the late 1880s a new
type of Indianismo that protested against the exploitative situation of Indians
was already developing in those Latin American countries heavily populated by
Indians. This new type of representation responded to new attitudes towards the
Indian population that were developing in the social, political, and philosophical
disciplines. The study of these attitudes contributes to the understanding of the
new image of the Indian in the twentieth century. The work of the Peruvians
Manuel Gonzalez Prada (1848-1918) and Clorinda Matto de Turner (1854-1909)
as that of the Bolivian Alcides Arguedas (1879-1946) and the Ecuadorian Luis A.
Martinez (1869-1909) has to be seen within the context of the attitude of social-
consciousness that emerged in Latin America during the first two decades of the
century. This attitude climaxed in the 1920s with the Mexican Muralist school
and in the 1930s with the rise of Indigenismo in the countries of the Andean area.
One of the main critics of the old order was Mera's contemporary and
countryman, Juan Montalvo (1832-1889) whose activity demonstrates the co-
existance, by the 1880s, of two opposite world views. Like Mera, Montalvo was
a fervient Americanist; unlike Mera he was anti-clerical and liberal. His writings
and activity against the Conservative president Gabriel Garcia Moreno, directed
 29

the frame of mind that eventually led to the Liberal Revolution in 1895.

2-4.1 Social Consciousness in Peruvian and Bolivian Indianismo

However, it is not until the turn of the century that criticism of the
continuing oppressive colonial system, as it particularly affected the Indian pop-
ulation, was first posed by the Peruvian Manuel Gonzalez Prada. Between 1871
and 1879, Gonzalez Prada published his Baladas peruanas in the daily journal
El correo del Peru.63 Although the Baladas peruanas are still closely related to
Romantic Indianismo in their use of legends and their evocation of history, they
divert from it in both the mode of representation and the attitude towards Indi-
ans. Unlike the main character of Meta's Curnanda, Gonzalez Prada's are more
accurate descriptions of Indians. In addition, Gonzalez Prada already presented
the Indian as a victim of the white's abuses.P"
While the oppressive situation of the Indian had been discussed in other
literary works, such as in the play Tupac Arnarti, and widely in the political dis-
course of Juan Montalvo, it had never been presented with the crudeness, realism,
and denunciatory spirit of Gonzalez Prada. In the speech entitled Propaganda y
ataque, delivered in 1888,65 Gonzalez Prada stated that the exploitation to which
Indians had been subjected for centuries was killing the last thing that a man can
lose: his hope.P"
Influenced by the Liberals, in his early work Gonzalez Prada presented
education as the only solution to the Indian's problems. Nevertheless, by 1904 he
abandoned the educational stance for, by the turn of the century, it had become
63They were published as a book after his death in 1935 (Santiago de Chile: Prensas de la
Editorial Ercilla, 1935).
64Cometta, El indio en la poesia, 22l.
65In Lima's Teatro Politeama.
66Cometta, El indio en la poesia, 222.
 30

strongly influenced by the Positivists' racist ideas. In his speech Nuestros indios
he stated that the essence of the Indian's problem laid, more strongly than in
the Indian's lack of education, in the socio-economic structure of the Peruvian
society." The value of Gonzalez Prada's stance, like that of his follower, Matto
de Turner, is that he showed that if there was going to be a 'second liberation'
this one had to include the independence of the Indian from his oppressors of
Spanish descent, not only through education but also by means of a change in
the country's socio-economic system.F' Furthermore, Gonzalez Prada prepared
the ground for the appearance of Indigenismo in the 1930's, not only in Peru, but
in the whole Andean area.
The critical stance of Montalvo and Gonzalez Prada is reflected in the
arts of the time. Gonzalez Prada's thought directly affected the creation of
Clorinda Matte de Turner's novel Aves sin Nido (1889).69 That this work was the
result of the direct influence of Gonzalez Prada's speech, delivered the year before
the publication of Aves sin nido, in Matto de Turner's attitude is acknowledged
in the dedication of the book to him.70 This novel, like Gonzalez Prada's early
work, inherited the Romantics profound sentimentalism and view of the Indian
as innocent and pure. However, Matto de Turner's attitude towards the Indian
already differs from that of her Romantic predecessors in that her interest on the
depiction of Indians is not based on a thirst for exoticism but rather on her com-
passion for what she thought was a terrible state of exploitation. She condemned
the exploitation of Indians by the large landowners, the local government, and
67Manuel Gonzalez Prada, Nuestros indios (Mexico: Uversidad Nacional Aut6noma de
Mexico, 1978). Cited in Cornejo, Literatura y sociedad, 41-42.
68Angel Rama, "EI area cultural andina (hispanismo, mesticismo, indigenismo )," Cuadernos
Americanos 33 (November, December 1974): 145.
69Buenos Aires: Felix Lajouane, 1889.
70Cometta, El indio en la novela, 18.
 31

the Church."! Her novel does not suggest any definite solution to the problem of
exploitation of Indians since she does not see why the oppressors would relinquish
their power; she does, however, suggest that a possible solution may be found in
the education of Indians. Aware that education would necessarily bring assimila-
tion and aculturation, she saw this solution as the price that Indians had to pay
for their liberation.
Contemporary to Gonzalez Prada's Nuestros Indios is the novel vVata
lVam (1904) by the Bolivian Alcides Arguedas. Though still nativist in flavor,72
an element of denunciation is already evident in this novel. Unlike Matto de
Turner, Arguedas did not ask for compassion for the Indian; he simply ended the
novel with an Indian rebellion against the white population 73suggesting that this
rebellion would bring the liberation of the Indian. The rebellion was no longer
depicted as an act of savagery.
Matto de Turner's novel, Gonzalez Prada's early work, and Arguedas
essay Pueblo enfermo (1909) propose education as the only solution to the so-
cial exploitation of Indians. This view responded to the widespread influence of
Positivism in Latin America since the mid nineteenth century. The Latin Amer-
ican Positivists saw progress and education as the main solutions to the Latin
American problems.
Some segments of Positivism proposed that each society and culture had
an innate 'mental state,.74 Since Latin America was composed mainly of Indi-
ans, blacks, and mixed races, who were mostly uneducated, the Latin American
71Melendez, 183. These three elements would be used later by the Indigenistas as basic
components of their work.
72Cometta, El indio en la novela, 35.
73Evelio Echevarria, "La novela indigenista hispanoamericana: definicion y bibiografia," Re-
vista Interamericana de Bibliografia 35, no. 3 (1985): 291.
74Arturo Andres Roig, introduction to Psicologia y Sociologia del Pueblo Ecuatoriano by
Alfredo Espinosa Tamayo (Quito: Banco Central del Ecuador, 1979),80.
 32

'mental state' had acquired a number of vices that were corrupting the entire
society. As a result, the Positivists saw Indians and blacks as the main obstacles
for progress75 and the solution in either immigration or in a directed education
that would eliminate those vices.I" Consequently, the educational program un-
dertaken had as a necessary goal the acculturation of Indians; they were to be
educated in the values of the dominant white population.
The concept of education as a modifier of undesirable traits, as proposed
by the Positivists, was widely accepted at the turn of the century for several
reasons. First, the idea of education had already appeared in relation to the con-
cept of the 'second liberation' whose underlining concept was that the American
problem consisted of a dichotomy, between the state and the people, which could
only be eliminated by liberating the people through state-directed educat.ion.I"

Second, some nineteenth century 'Americanists'P saw that in order to develop a

new vision of the historical and social characteristics of Latin America, the peas-
ants as well as the elite had to be educated. The elite had to be 're-educated' to
be able to lead the masses. 79
With these antecedents, many late nineteenth century Americanists be-
came influenced by the Positivists' determinism and their 'second liberation' ideal
took racist overtones. It was the undelying racism of the educational programs
for Indians, of which Gonzalez Prada had become aware by 1904, which made him
strongly object to it. However, except for Gonzalez Prada who saw through this
75Jean Franco, La Cultura Moderna en America Latina (Mexico: Editorial Joaquin Moritz,
1971),54.
76Roig,85 .
77Ibid., 43-44.
78The term 'americanismo' is used by Latin American intellectuals to refer to the Latin
American identity in contrast to the European identity -it sometimes included the United
States, particularly before its rise as an empire at the turn of the century.
79As early as 1838 Juan Bautista Alberdi presented this program of 'mental liberation' (Roig,
84).
 33

underlying racism most Latin American intellectuals and artists, including those
from areas heavily populated by Indians, continued to support Positivist theories
through the 1910s. A most representative example is Arguedas and his essay El
pueblo etdexxao/" In Ecuador it was not until 1915 with the essays of Agustin
Cueva and Belisario Quevedo that the racist principles of Positivism were openly
criticized.

2-4.2 Realism and the Liberal Revolution in Ecuador

Parallel to the turn of the century development of the politically charged

Indianismo in Peru and Bolivia is the development of Realism in Ecuador. There,
this was mainly a literary movement (in the fine arts a type of academic naturalism
prevailed). The Realist novel received its impulse from the Liberal Revolution
1895) which not only provided the crudeness of war as subject matter81 but also
a political ideology that permitted the open discussion of social and economic
problems that had affected the Ecuadorian society since the time of the conquest.
Though most Realist works were not directly concerned with Indians as subject
matter, it is important to refer to them in this study of the development of
attitudes towards Indians because of their concentration in the problems of the
lower classes which served as a model for later Indianista and Indigenista works.
The most important Realist work is A la costa (1904) by Luis A. Marti-
nez which develops during the period of the Liberal Revolution. Although in A la
costa Martinez questioned many of the social problems of the time and stylistically
broke away from the Romantic tradition, his most important contribution lies in
the fact that his novel presented the problem of the exploitation of the peasant
8oIbid., 86.
81 Rojas, 98.
 34

'::Jy the upper classes. 82

The theme of the novel is the migration of the highland population to

:he coast. Through the narration of the first part of the novel, which takes place
.n the highlands, the author pointed to the prejudices and corruptions common
:0 the middle class of the time. The Liberal Revolution, with which the first
part of the novel ends, is presented as the only alternative to the ills of the
old order. In the second he described with great realism the exploitative work
environment of the coastal farm, judging the value of such system. Unlike Mera
.n his Costumbrista work,83 Martinez discussed the Ecuadorian costumsf" with
a touch of criticism. In this partially autobiographic novel, Martinez questioned
some of the most serious social problems of the time. His social criticism was an
element that no other Ecuadorian work had had until then and which will only
reappear in the Ecuadorian arts in the 1930s.
Because of his preoccupation with the lower classes and the critical point
of view with which he analyzed the Ecuadorian society, Martinez thought paral-
.eled that of Gonzalez Prada. As Gonzalez Prada, Martinez' Liberalism was the
result of the ideas of 'second liberation'. In Ecuador their source was the thought
of Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo (1747-1795) and they climaxed at the turn
of the century with the Liberal Revolution of 1895. On the eve of the Wars of
Independence Espejo saw the exploitation of the Indian as partly caused by a
82Martinez was a liberal who fought in the Liberal Revolution. During his years of public
office, he defended and put in practice several of the liberal reforms. His carreer began with
a job as a farm overseer in a small town near Ambato and culminated in his appointment, in
1904, to be Minister of Education (Ibid., 113).
83See his Novelitas ecuatorianas (1909).
84The first chapter of A la Costa is subtitled "Costumbres ecuatorianas" .
 35

social prejudice between Spaniards and criollos and criollos and Indians:

The imbecility of the Indian is not an imbecility of reason, judgement,

or understanding. It is a political imbecility sprung from [the Indian's]
dejection and poverty ... What Indians have is shyness, cowardness, pusil-
lanimity, abjectness of mind, [all of which are] ordinary consequence in
conquered nations.i"

Although Espejo's views about the Indian's situation remained popular

only among a small circle of Liberals, with the upper class' attitude dominating
throughout the nineteenth century, Espejo's ideas about the liberation of the
popular classes from the Colonial oppressive system was one of the main goals
of the liberal rhetoric. Furthermore, with the ultra-conservative administration
of President Gabriel Garda Moreno (1860-1875) these ideas became radicalized
and led to the outcome of the Liberal Revolution in 1895.
If, however, the Liberal Revolution mostly benefitted the rising middle-
class and did not bring immediate changes to the lower class' social, economic,
and political problems, at least the coming to power of Liberalism permitted
open consideration of those issues. Martinez, as other progressive intellectuals
and artists of his time, examplifies the spirit of social re-evaluation extant in
Ecuador at the turn of the century.

2-5 Modernismo: Elitist Interlude in the First Twenty Years

Neither Martinez's social consciousness nor the critical Indianisrno of

Gonzalez Prada, Matte de Turner, and Arguedas created a school. In effect
during the next decade the movement Modernismo with its elusiveness towards
problems of the time dominated art and literature.
85Carlos Paladines, "El pensamiento economico, politico y social de Espejo," Eugenio Espejo.
Conciencia critica de su epoce (Quito: PUCE, 1978), 193. Quoted by Roig, 38.
 36

Modernismo, which developed in Latin America in the 1880's, evolved

out of a rejection of Romanticism and academic Spanish models. The Modernistas
aimed at evoking beauty without falling into the sentimentality of Romanticism;
thus they set forth to formally renovate the arts by borrowing from many late
nineteenth century European schools such as Symbolism, Parnassianism, Irnpre-
sionism, and Post-Impresionism all of whom shared a rejection for the mimetic
reproduction of nature. The Modernista aesthetic proclaimed the supremacy of
art over external reality. Thus, the Modernistas alienated themselves from the
immediate reality to find refuge in the higher realm of the arts. Consequently,
the contemporary Indian was rarely of interest to them. Nonetheless, a few Mod-
ernista artists and writers chose to depict Indians in their work.
In Ecuador, the use of local subject matter and the eventual appearance
of Indians within this context is seen in the writings of Gonzalo Zaldumbide (1883-
1966). Zaldumbide was, with Isaac Barrera (1884-1970), the Modernista theorist
in Ecuador. He introduced Gabriel d'Annunzio, Henri Barbusse, and the French
'poetes maldits' to the young Ecuadorian Modernistas.P" His diplomatic career
allowed him to travel throughout Europe and meet French and Spanish writers,
particularly befriending the writers of the Spanish generation of '98' (considered
the Spanish counterpart of the Latin American Modernismo). He also knew many
of the Latin American Modernista writers who lived in Spain and France at the
time.
Zaldumbide endorsed the idealism of the Uruguayan thinker Jose Enrique
Rod6 (1872-1917)87 for whom the ideal assumed a fruitful immersion in reality in
86Rojas, 133.
87In 1903 he gave a speech entitled De Ariel in which he exposed his interpretation of Rod6's
theories (Isaac J. Barrera, Historia de la. Literatura Ecuatoriana (Quito: Editorial Casa de la
Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1960), 1072). Arielismo is a term used to refer to Rod6's thought, after
his essay El Ariel.
 37

order to humanize and spiritualize it.88 In general terms, Arielist ideals paralleled
those of Modernismo. Rod6 aimed to renovate the ideal. In order to do so, like
the Modernistas, he opposed the naturalist Realism that Positivism endorsed and
supported the search of the ideal in beauty. Rod6 thought that the Nicaraguan
poet Ruben Dario (1867-1916) was the prime example of that idealism which
does not negate or destroy reality, but instead enriches and expands it.89
Zaldumbide's Arielist idealism complemented the Modernist tendency
of his creative writing. Indeed, within the context of idealism Zaldumbide in-
troduced the local culture into his writings. Without sacrificing the universality
and 'cosmopolitanism' that characterized his early works, as those of most Mod-
ernistas, in his novel Egloga Tnigica (1910-1911)90 Zaldumbide dealt with the
local characteristics of his country. In Egloga Tnigica, where pastoral life is
described, nature stands for the 'ideal', spiritual realm that man aims to reach.
The description of the locale in Egloga Tnfgica appear in the context of
a senes of essays and speeches in which Zaldumbide discussed the natural and
ethnic atmosphere of Ecuador. It is in these essays that Zaldumbide introduced
the Indian. His view of the Indian was still idealistic, but of an Arielist rather
than a Romantic sort. He perceived them as part of nature, as belonging to it:

Indians still love the heights with a strange ancient predilection. It was
from ... [those heights] ... from where they built the anxiety of the Spaniards
... [when they] ... were starting to build their Colonial villages. The [deso-
lated heights are] theirs, not from legal titles but rather from native affini-
ties: They instinctly feel the continuity of their elusive nature with the
diffidence of that lonely land.91

88Horacio Cerutti Guldberg ed., Pensamiento ideaiista ecuatoriano (Quito: Banco Central
del Ecuador, 1981), 18-19.
89Cited from Redo's El Ariel by Cerutti, 20-2l.
g°It was published in 1916 in Revista de la Sociedad Juridico Literaria (Rojas, 134).
91 Barrera, 1074.
 38

=~~=.:.irnbide no longer perceived Indians as exotic members of Ecuadorian society.

:.~~=-:ainingan external appreciation of Indians, Zaldumbide valued their human
:.~: ure, He identified Indians with the surrounding nature which symbolized the

:~eal space were spiritual life flourished.P'' Since Zaldumbide avoided the 'inferior
:<~rces ~ of politics, his interest in Indians was not one that involved their social
and political situation in national society; for him Indians stood for a spiritual
.deal, 93

Since the Modernistas' mam goal was not the depiction of reality as
perceived by the eye, but the embelishment of the form surrounding that reality,
:he Indian remained idealized in Modernista expression. As in Zaldumbide's
case, some Modernistas saw Indians as part of nature and identified them with
spiritual ideals. Others mantained the exoticism of the Romantics, depicting
Indians as a superficial ornament. Responding to their rejection of politics and
any of the 'vulgar' elements of society.i" the Modernistas' depiction of Indians did
not concern the life and problems of the contemporary Indians; rather the imperial
pre-Columbian past was most often represented. Indians therefore came to be part
of the large and varied exotic and luxurious Modernista thematic repertoire. They
appeared within the world of kings, princesses and luxury. These exotic images
could be taken from the legendary Persian empire or from the Inca empire as
long as they evoked the 'fantastically beautiful and delicate'v" Thus the Indian
entered the Modernista imagery as another exotic element. It is in this context
that the Peruvian writer Jose Santos Chocano (1875-1934) used the image of the
92Cerutti, 42.
93Ibid.
94The Modernista aesthetic was based on a rejection of the 'anti-poetic material world' and
on the evokation of the beautiful and harmonious (Manuel Gutierrez Najera, "El arte y el
materialismo," Obras (Mexico: Universidad Nacional Aut6noma de Mexico, 1959),49-64).
95Cometta, El indio en la poeia, 224
 39

Indian.
The work of Santos Chocano is largely composed of Indianista poems
III which the aristocratic Incas were depicted. 'While Santos Chocano claimed
to be part of the 'great mestizo race', his claim was based on an exaltation of
only those elements of Indians that were poetically useful. Thus, Santos Chocano
concentrated on the most aristocratic Indians of the past. The Inca past evoked
images of luxury and royalty that inspired his depictions of Indians surrounded by
luxurious regalia. His poetry exemplifies the Modernista attitude of indiference
towards the contemporary Indians' social and political situation.
The image of the Indian also appeared in Modernista painting. The most
representative example of this expression can be found outside of Ecuador in the
work of the Mexican painter Saturnino Herran (1887-1918). His work paralleled
the Spanish Modernistas' in style and subject matter. His figures are elongated
and the surrounding landscape is often highly dramatized and activated as that
of the Spanish painter Ignacio Zuluaga (1870-1941) (Figs. 9 and 10). Herran's
interest in the local customs of his country is also found in the Spaniard's work.
Inspite of their stylization, Herran's depiction of Indians expressed the interest in
the locale experienced in Mexico during the first two decades of the century. The
Mexican Muralists would later reject Herrau's work for its archaic tendencies.?"
however, his work was the necessary step to arrive at the more coherent expression
of the locale shown by the Mexican Muralists. The moment in the history of
Mexican art that Herrin's work, represents parallels Camilo Egas's in Ecuadorian
art. Egas's work, like that of the Mexican marks a transition between two modes
of representation of the Indian: Romantic Costumbrismo of the late nineteenth
961none of his 1921 manifestoes Siqueiros condemned the early "archeological reconstructions"
clearly refering to the work of Herran.
 40

century and Indigenismo of the 1930s and 1940s.

2-6 Social Consciousness in the 1910s

During the first decades of the century, parallel to the emergence of Mod-
ernisrno, another response to the interest in the locale and in national identity is
seen in the development of a social consciousness. This evolving social conscious-
ness would affect the artistic development in the late 1910s and early 1920s. As
an interest in national history, folklore, and ethnology were some of the mani-
festations of the national spirit of the late nineteenth century, the influence of
Positivism determined the attitude with which the search for national identity
was to be approached at the turn of the century. For the Latin American Pos-
itivists, the search for a national identity had to be solved by first determining
the psychology of the Latin American countries and second by modifying that
psychology through education. For the Ecuadorian Alfredo Espinosa Tamayo af-
ter the psychology of the Ecuadorian people had been determined an educational
plan would be used to create a new 'citizen'.97 He proposed to "cultivate those
qualities [that were] contrary to the nature of the 'American' man,,,98 thus assum-
ing that a natural negativity permeated the Ecuadorian character. Therefore, the
search for its essencial characteristics had as only purpose the desire to change
them, to Europeanize them. Education was for Espinosa Tamayo, as for most
Positivists, an instrument to change undesirable cultural traits found particularly
in the non-European races: Indians and Blacks.
By the mid 1910s, however, the view that the education of the poor
would solve all the social problems of the Latin American countries began to be
97Roig,100.
98Ibid.,101.
 41

criticised by those who perceived its underlying prejudice. Partly as a result of the
influence of the Socialist ideas brought by the Russian and Mexican Revolutions,
by this time the search for a solution to the country's social problems emphasized
a structural change which included the integration of Indians and workers into
the dominant society rather than the old educational program. This integration
necessarily had national unity as one of its goals. Agustin Cueva Tamariz and
Belisario Quevedo were two of the most important supporters of this view in
Ecuador. Although they professed many Positivist principles in their thought,
their stance differed from mainstream Latin American Positivism in their defense
of the popular classes. Their social thought pre-dates the Socialism that emerged
in Ecuador in the mid 1920s.
With national unity as main goal, Cueva's suggested the elimination
of 'concertaje'f" and the establishment of an educational program for Indians
as a solution to their unfair social state. However, the implications of Cueva's
educational program included the total assimilation of Indians into the 'superior
national culture' by substituting their native language, Quichua, for Spanish.U'"
thus a total integration of the various ethnic groups into one 'nation' was achieved.
Cueva's inclusion of an educational program which assumed the elimination of
the Indian 'culture' was still strongly tied to Positivism. Traces of the Positivist
racial determinism in his thought can be seen, for instance, in his belief that
education would take away from the Indians the 'confused and atavistic notions
99Through this system, which was stablished in 1601, the landless peasant worked for a
landlord for a certain amount of time; in exchange he was given a small piece of land and a set
amount of money, animals, or food. However, the loses in the landlord's crops would be the
peasant's responsability. As a result, he would often be in debt. Since throughout the Colonial
and part of the Republican periods, imprisonment for debt was enforced, the peasant would
often be imprinomed (Oswaldo Hurtado, Political Power in Ecuador (Quito: Ediciones de la
Universidad Catolica, 1977),59-60).
100 Agustin Cueva, "Nuestra organizaci6n social y la servidumbre ," Revista de la Sociedad
Juridico Literaria 14, no. 25/26/27 (January/February/March 1915): 58.
 42

[inherited by the contemporary Indians from] the Inca civilization, and would
leave [in them] the spiritual pearls of contemporary progress." 101

Already by 1913, Belisario Quevedo showed a more progressive view of

the problems of the Ecuadorian Indians and workers. In it education as an in-
strument of social reform had been totally eliminated. In his brief article "Imp or-
tancia socio16gica del concertaje" he discussed the need to eliminate 'concertaje'
since its mantainance affected not only the Indians themselves but the country's
economic production in general.102 He pointed that the use of this "totally bar-
barous" economic system prevented the Ecuadorian society from progressing. 103

In a later article he elaborated this concept by stating that it was necessary to

Demonstrate to the country's landowners that in order to give impulse

and progress to agricultural procedures and working [systems], it is indis-
pensable to [first] abolish ... 'concertaje'. [This abolition should] not come
out of mercy and compassion, but out of an intelligent interest that knows
that it is not possible [to achieve] any [advancement in] the agricultural
techniques, if the economic relations between the human elements of pro-
duction (landowner and worker) are not improved first.104

Thus, Quevedo stressed that the source of the problem of exploitation of the lower
classes lied on the mantainance of an old fashioned economic structure, which not
only affected the lower but also the ruling classes.
During the first two decades of the century, social reform was a major
concern of social scientists. It is only with the influence of Socialism, in the 1910s,
that it is acknowledged that the base of the Latin American social problems is a
deficient economic system. These social ideas spread to the younger generation
lOlIbid.
l02Belisario Quevedo, "Importancia sociologica del concertaje," Revista de fa Sociedad
Juridico-Literaria 11, no. 7 (July 1913): 61-
l03Ibid.
l04Belisario Quevedo, "Cuatro palabras," Afmanaque 'Ecuador' IIustrado (Quito: Imprenta y
libreria C.B. Sanchez, 1921),89.
 43

mainly through Cueva and Quevedo who taught at the Central University In
Quito during the 1910s and 1920s.
The paintings of Indians done by Camilo Egas during the 1920s have
to be seen within the intellectual context just described above. Egas, who was
born in Quito in c. 1883-1886,105 grew up during the aftermath of the Liberal
Revolution. He was exposed not only to the political upheaval of the time, but also
to the conflicting ideas that coexisted then. The growing social-consciousness of
the time when he was growing up must have influenced his interest in the Indians
as subject matter for his paintings.P"
The first signs of the social preoccupation of the time in the artistic
and literary community is evident in the establishment, in 1918, of the magazine
Caricatura (1918-1924) which exposed the disatisfaction of a group of young intel-
lectuals and artists's with the social solutions brought by the Liberal Revolution
of 1895. Some of the people associated with this magazine later joined Egas when
he founded the art magazine Helice in 1926, which although mainly concerned
with artistic issues supported leftist politics by publishing political caricatures.I'"
Although an earlier connection with Egas has not been established, it is possible
that even by the late 1910s and early 1920s Egas already shared these people's

I
progressive political ideas. Although Egas's political attitude is not obvious in
I
,!
l05His birthdate varies greatly from source to source. Yet, since Egas was about eighteen
years old when his first son was born in Italy, between 1911 and 1914, he must have been born
sometime between 1883 and 1886.
l06Egas must have certainly been familiar with Tobar y Borgofic's ideas since the latter was,
with Jij6n y Caamafio and Pacifico Chiriboga, one of the most important collectors of Egas's
works in the early 1920s (Raul Andrade, "Dos escorzos sobre Egas," in Musco del Banco Central,
Camilo Egas (Quito: Museo del Banco Central, 1980), n.p.). (See Carlos Tobar y Borgofio, "La
protecci6n legal del obrero en el Ecuador," Revista de la Sociedad Jurfdico Literaria 10, nos.
3/4 (Marchi April 1913): 133-165).
107Enrique Teran, who directed Caricatura, and the caricaturists Latorre, Diez, and Kanela,
who contributed in Caricatura, collaborated with Egas in Helice.
 44

his paintings of the late 1910s early 1920s, his strong interest in the Indian shows
that the ideas outlined above must have influenced him to a certain degree. In-
deed his total dedication to the representation of Indians in his painting was in
itself a political statement.
Nevertheless, Egas's paintings of the late 1910s and early 1920s still
reflect the biases prevalent in the social thought of this period. In the theories of
social reform presented by Cueva, the integration of the Indian into the dominant
society implied a replacement of the Indian culture by the white or European.
That Egas shared this attitude can be seen in the idealization and stylizations of
the Indian figures he depicted in the Jij6n y Caarnafio paintings. He showed his
appreciation of, and compassion for, Indians by superimposing European ideals of
beauty onto his depictions of them. He portrayed them with European features,
perhaps because he may have felt, as Cueva, that the European was the 'superior
national culture' to which all others had to be integrated.
The development of the image of the Indian in Ecuadorian art and lit-
erature paved the way for the work Camilo Egas produced in the 1920s. This
development which began at the time of the conquest expressed attitudes to-
wards Indians which evolved from Las Casas's initial defense of the Indian rights
to the identification of the Indian with the exotic local land to finally a recogni-
tion of the Indian's human and cultural values. This re-evaluation of Indians as
individuals with feelings of their own is exemplified in the work of Camilo Egas.
 CHAPTER 3

EGAS'S FIRST PAINTINGS OF INDIANS: 19108 AND EARLY

19208

By the late 1910's and early 1920's Camilo Egas began to depict the
native Indians of Ecuador. His use of Indians as a subject was a result first of his
compassion and humanitarian feelings towards Indians and second of the influence
of a number of social and cultural determinants that gave him a readyness to
explore such subject matter. Egas's earliest works, done in the 1910s, show
a stylistic continuity with Costumbrismo as well as with Egas's own work of
1922/23. Concentrating on the study of fourteen paintings Egas did in 1922/23
:or the Ecuadorian archeologist and historian Jacinto Jijon y Caarnafio, we will
elucidate the most direct sources of Egas's initial use of Indians as subject matter.
A brief stylistic analysis points first to the stylistic sources of the works. Second
it suggests a thematic program. And third it suggests the possible location of
the fourteen paintings in .Iijon y Caarnafio's library. An iconographic analysis
points to Egas's first hand observation of Indian rituals and his use of popular
history textbooks as direct sources for his fourteen paintings. The importance of
the development of archeology on these paintings is also considered.

45
 46

3-1 First Depictions of Indians in the Late 1910s

Although it is not until 1922 that Egas began dating his paintings of
Indians, according to a number of sources he became acquainted with, and began
to depict, the Ecuadorian Indian after he returned from Italy in 1914 or 1915. His
initial use of this subject in his paintings at that time was due to the hiring for
the first time at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes of nude models, specifically
an Indian couple from Llano Chico and Llano Grande, two villages northeast
of Quito.' Upon Egas's return from Italy, Luigi Cassadio, an Italian instructor
whom the school had hired in 1912 to teach sculpture and Egas himself recruited
the models.P
Jaime Andrade states that during this period Egas made a number of
sketches and oil paintings of the Indian couple." Thus, Egas would have began to
depict Indians by the mid 1910s. Jorge Diez mentions that Las floristas and EI
sanjuanito (both mid 1910s) were two of Egas's earliest paintings in which Indi-
ans were represented." Diez's assertion is supported by an article written on the
occasion of an exhibition held in 1917 for the purpose of selecting a new painting
professor for the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, in which the author affirmed
that the paintings exhibited by Egas recalled the earlier Las floristas.5 The exhi-
IJaime Andrade, Personal Communication, September, 1986. The sculptor Andrade (1913)
knew Egas since c. 1926 through his two older brothers, the writer Raul and the draftsman and
painter Carlos (,Kanela'). In 1926 the three brothers collaborated with Egas in the organization
of the Galeria Egas and the magazine Helice. Raul has written perhaps the most insightfull
articles on Egas to this date.
2Ibid.
3Ibid.
4Jorge Diez, La Pintura moderna en e1 Ecuador (Quito: Talleres Graficos de Educaci6n,
1938), 10.
5"EI criollismo de Egas [c. 1917]," Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York City;
F. Guarderas, "EI Concurso para proveer a la Catedra de Pintura de la Escuela de Bellas
Artes de Quito," Revista de 1a Sociedad Lurldico-litererie, 47-48 (May 1917): 273-277.
 47

bition was one of the annual exhibitions held in the 'Kiosco' de la Alameda since
w:
il' 1915.6
I!
But what was the subject matter and style of these early paintings of
'.;.1.·

I Indians? Las fioristas and EI sanjuanito represented Indian rituals of sorts: Las
.
,
,,
fioristas represented an ancient pre-Columbian ritual, in which the "graceful and
...i•··
.II:.~ gentle 'virgins of the sun' " were shown carrying on their shoulders a floral
11
offering" and EI sanjuanito represented a melancholic dance still performed in var-
~]
ious Ecuadorian Indian communities and urban popular neighbourhoods. From
descriptions we know that Las fioristas and El sanjuanito presented scenes from
the everday life of the contemporary Indian population as well as rituals from the
pre-Columbian past, themes that Egas favored during the early 1920s, particu-
larly in the paintings of the Jijon y Caamafio commission of 1922/23. The .Iijon
y Caamafio commission is composed of fourteen oil paintings: One represents
the discovery of America, six pre-Columbian rituals, and seven contemporary In-
dian scenes. One painting from the contemporary series, Fiesta indigena (1922)
(Fig. 21), parallels the description of Las fioristas in its portrayal of a group
of women carrying flowers. On the other hand, because of its representation of
pre-Columbian Indian women Las fioristas may have also resembled Danza Cer-
monial (Fig. 26), from the pre-Columbian scenes of the same commission. El
sanjuanito may have been a similar scene to Baile (Fig. 16), from the same com-
mission, which also represents the sanjuanito dance. Thus Las fioristas and El

I sanjuanito can be considered forerunners of the early 1920s paintings of Indian

:1 6Jose Maria Vargas, Historie del arte Ecuatoriano (Quito: Editorial Santo Domingo, 1964),
200. The participants were originally students and young and progressive instructors of the
Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes who rejected old teaching practices and academic art (Jose
Alfredo Llerena, La pintura ecuatoriana del siglo veinte (Quito: Imprenta de la Universidad,
1942), 64).
7 "EI criollismo de Egas".

I
,

',I
T 'L!

48

customs and rituals.

Egas's interest in Indian customs and rituals is related to late nineteenth
century Costumbrismo. Two undated paintings, Niiio indio (Fig. 11) and Retraio
de india (Fig. 12), show the stylistic connection to, and diversion from, this type
of painting. Niiio indio and Heirato de india parallel Costumbrista painting in
that the figures are totally perpendicular to the picture plane and in their isola-
tion from any external context, mantaining the iconic quality of their predecessors
(see Figs. 2 and 13). However, unlike Costumbrista painting these two paintings
do not give any indication to the occupation of the sitters, either through the ac-
tivity depicted or the title, lacking the documentary quality of most Costumbrista
painting. Furthermore, Egas's paitings are charged with psycological content, a
rare element in Costumbrista work. The glance of the woman in Hetraio de india
is intense and daring; that of Niiio indio is one of resignation and sadness.
Triptico, a painting exhibited in the 1917 exhibition mentioned above
had a similar Costumbrista character to Niiio indio and Retrato de india, and
was, like the others, one of Egas's early depictions of Indians. The central panel
showed a couple of Indians dancing, the left panel an Indian seated on a humble
room, and the right panel an Indian playing a 'rondador' (pan-pipe}." One of
the exhibition reviewers compared the figures on the side panels to Costumbrista
painting." Since Niiio indio and Retrato de india, as Las floristas, El sanjuanito,
and Tripiico , are closer to traditional Costumbrista types, such as those of Pinto
or Jose Agustin Guerrero, than any of Egas's early 1920s paintings, they must
Ii have been done during the mid 1910s. Nonetheless, in spite of the connection
8Guarderas, 275.
gIn "El criollismo de Egas" the author compared the side figures to M ayoraZ and Indio A n-
ionio. Although he did not clarify whether these paintings were by Egas or not, his description
of them and their titles suggests that he may be referring to two works by Joaquin Pinto that
bear those titles.
 49

of Egas's early paintings with Costumbrista painting in their representation of

customs and rituals of Indians, they already disclose a different attitude towards
Indians. They are no longer representations of exotic types of the Ecuadorian
society; instead they show a concern for the human nature of the portrayed.
Even though Egas's early depictions of Indians as exemplified in Nino
indio and Reirato de india show a compositional and typological relation to Cos-
tumbrista painting, they also show stylistic similarities to Egas's early 1920s
paintings. Among these are the use of a quick and pasty brushtroke as well
as the deliberately untidy treatment of the hair, elements that reveal the style
that would dominate in the early 1920s paintings (see, for instance, El »elorio
(1922) and the central figure of Indiqenas can vasijas (1922) Figs. 17 and 24).
The thick application of color patches used in the two earlier portraits to capture
the character of the·figures is used in the later paintings in a more decorative way.
Egas's use of Indians as subject matter of his painting during the 1910s
was certainly not unique. Antonio Salguero Salas painted (1864-1920) Indios
de la sierra ecuaioriana (n.d.) during the 1910s. In the 1917 exhibition Victor
Mideros (1888-1962) showed a work entitled El festin which portrays a group of
Indians ploughing the land."? However, according to the author of "El criollismo
de Egas", Egas had already established a new type of depiction of the Indian
before the latter which indeed was beginning to be apparent in the painting
exhibited by Mideros. The author stated, "... we see that [Mideros] also initiates
himself in the 'criollista.' route that Egas rebelliously marked." 11 Egas no longer

,I depicted the Indian as the "rustic [being] who had been idiotized by the white
,I
man who, in turn, lives off [the Indian's] toil." When making such a statement, the
10 "EI criollismo de Egas" .
11 Ibid.
 50

author of this article was evidently differentiating Egas's work from Costumbrista
paintings of Indians. Egas's paintings were no longer portrayals of the exotic
population of Ecuador, as Mera depicted Indians in his novel Cumanda; they
were now portrayals of the Indians' human nature. Though for today's critic
Egas's paintings of the 1910s, and for that matter those of the early 1920s, seem
hardly rebellious, seen in the context of the 1920s they nonetheless presented a
new image of Indians that broke with nineteenth century and turn of the century
Romantic and academic art.

3-2 The Early 1920s Works: The Jij6n y Caamafio Commission

Egas first dated his paintings in 1922. The fourteen paintings commis-
sioned that year by the Ecuadorian archeologist and historian Jacinto .Iijon y
Caamafio form the main body of these early 1920s paintings. They were done
to decorate .Iijon y Caamafio's newly built library (which was also to house his
archeological collection) where they hung on a hall on the second floor, overlook-
ing the main reading room (Fig. 14).12 The fourteen paintings of this commission
represent a variety of Indian rituals, both past and contemporary. Their study
is important since many aspects of them reflect Egas's own aims, intentions, and
the most direct sources of his interest in Indians as subject matter. Though the
development of archeology served as an incentive that led Egas to paint Indians in
the first place and at that time, these paintings' most direct thematic sources ap-
pear to have come from Egas's own observation of Indian customs, in the scenes of
contemporary life, and from accounts about the Incas found in history textbooks,
in the pre-Columbian scenes.
12Jose Maria Vargas, Jacinto Jijon y Caamaiio; su vida y su Museo de Arqueologfa y Arte
Ecuatorianos (Quito: Editorial Santo Domingo, 1971), 30.
 51
, I

That Jijon y Caamafio commissioned Egas to paint fourteen paintings

of Indians is important for it suggests not only that artist and patron shared
a mutual interest in the Indianl" but also that the development of archeology
during the early part of the century, as was particularly being carried out by
Jijon y Caamafio, was affecting a certain sector of the Ecuadorian society.
Systematic archeological research begun in Ecuador by the end of the
nineteenth century. The historian Federico Gonzalez Suarez (1844-1917) used
archeology as an auxiliary science to his historical research as early as 1872.14
The French archeologist Paul Rivet arrived in Ecuador with the French Geodesic
Mission in 1901. He stayed until 1906 during which time he directed several arche-
ological excavations. In 1909 Gonzalez Suarez founded the Sociedad Ecuatoriana
de Estudios Historicos Americanos which sponsored historical as well as archeo-
logical research.P Of the original members of the society, .Iijon y Caamafio came
to be the most important. He wrote extensively on Ecuadorian pre-Columbian
cultures since 1909, and about the Incas in 1918 and 1919.16 He systematized the
archeological research in Ecuador and sponsored local and foreign specialists to do
research there. Among those foreign archeologists sponsored by .Iijon y Caamafio
was the German Max Uhle who worked in Ecuador from 1919 to 1924,17 By
1920 .Iijon y Caamafio had become the most prominent archeologist of Ecuador;
by the 1940s he compiled his research in a systematic history of pre-Columbian
13Unfortunately we ignore the specific terms of the commission.
14In 1872 he directed an excavation in the site of Chordeleg, near Cuenca in the south of
Ecuador. The results of this investigation appeared in his book Estudio hist6rico sobre los
Caiiaris antiguos pobladores de fa Provincia del A.zuay (Jose Marfa Vargas, Historia de fa
culture ecueioriene (Quito: Editorial de la Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1965),547-548).
15Ibid., 553.
16His first archeological excavation dates from 1909 when he dug in the town of Urcuqui, in
the northern province ofImbabura (Ibid., 553, 556).
17Vargas, Jacinto Jij6n y Ceemeiio, 34.
 52

Ecuador.l" Today he is considered the father of Ecuadorian archeology. The im-

portance of Jij6n y Caamaiio to the study of history and archeology in Ecuador
is invaluable. In the first twenty years of the century the archeological research
carried out not only clarified many misconceptions about the pre-Columbian in-
habitants but helped focus attention on the contemporary Indians. This interest
in past as well as in present Indian cultures is synthesized in the fourteen paintings
Egas did for Jij6n y Caamaiio.
Of the fourteen paintings of the Jij6n y Caarnafio commission one repre-
sents the discovery of America, six pre-Columbian scenes, and seven contemporary
Indian scenes. Four of the contemporary scenes can be classified as 'processional'
and three as 'rural' scenes. The classification of the paintings into three thematic
groups, 'processional', 'rural', and pre-Columbian, is corraborated by the stylistic
continuity within each group. In the paintings classified as 'processional' the idea
of procession is suggested by the horizontal, frieze-like arrangement of the compo-
sitions -the figures walk one behind the other before a mountainous landscape
on a narrow highland road. The 'rural' scenes, which represent contemporary
Indian rituals, take place in a deeper space and the compositions are less sym-
metrical than in the other groups. In the pre-Columbian scenes the figures are
placed in shallow frieze-like high plateaus. Although the figures are not arranged
in a totally horizontal manner in relation to one another, as in the 'processional'
paintings, the overall effect is one of horizontality.
18Ibid. In El Ecuador Interandino y Occidental antes de la conquita espanola ((Quito: Edito-
rial ecuatoriana), 1941-1943), he summarized the result of thirty years of archeological research.
 53

3-2.1 Stylistic Discussion

Before discussing the thematic sources of these paintings, it is necessary

to first briefly summarize the sources and implications of the style used in these
paintings and second to analyze the stylistic relation between them. A stylistic
discussion of the paintings of the .Iijon y Caarnafio commission is important be-
cause it shows that the creation of the paintings followed a thematic and stylistic
program. All the paintings share the same rectangular frieze-like figural arrange-
ments; the figures are elongated and the backgrounds are highly dramatized.
These elements parallel Spanish Modernista painting, with which Egas came in
contact during his stay in Spain between 1920 and 1922 and which was still
prevalent in Latin America at the time. Indeed Egas often visited Hermenegildo
Anglada Camarasa's (1872-1959) studio while in Spain.l" By comparing Egas's
Ritual (Fig. 15) with Ignacio Zuluaga's (1870-1945) El torero del corcito (early
twentieth century) (Fig. 9), Egas's debt to Modernismo becomes evident. Rit-
ual shows a similar dramatic treatment of the background landscape as well as
a similar use of a low horizon line and a ledge-like platform where the figures
stand. Like Zuluaga's, Egas's figures are elongated and highly stylized, beguiling
the characteristic small bodies of the Ecuadorian highland Indians. In addition,
like Zuluaga's, the facial gestures are often artificial and theatrical. The gestures,
the dramatic background, and the frieze-like arrangement of the figures add to
the stage-like effect of the paintings. One of the early commentators of Egas's
paintings remarked on the choreographic quality of the earlier Las fioristas and
Tripiico.i" Indeed it is a choreographic arrangement that seems to rule the com-
position of these paintings too. Furthermore, Egas must have felt attracted to
19Raul Andrade.
20"EI criollismo de Egas" .
 54

Zuluaga's interest in the local culture and folklore of his country since he shared
a similar interest in these themes.
In the 'rural' scenes Egas chose to represent the actual ritual while in the
'processional' scenes he showed the moment just before it. Perhaps this selection
responded first to a poetic interest in evoking rather than in representing the
actual event and second to a formal interest. Although no information exists
regarding the order in which the paintings originally hung in Jijon y Caamaiio's
library, Egas must have mantained a thematic and formal unity. The thematic
and stylistic relation of the paintings to one another suggests the order in which
these works must have been arranged. All the paintings that represent rural scenes
(Baile (Fig. 16), El velorio (Fig. 17), and Untitled) (Fig. 18) ) take place in front of
a stucco wall and are formed by large groups of people. The 'processional' scenes
(Camino al mercado (Fig. 19), Procesion (Fig. 20), Fiesta uidiqeno. (Fig. 21),
and Los yumbos (Fig. 22) ) show smaller groups of figures arranged in frieze-like
compositions in front of a mountainous landscape. The pre-Columbian scenes
(Ritual (Fig. 15), Cosecha de maiz (Fig. 23), Iruliqenas con vasijas (Fig. 24),
Ofretida (Fig. 25), Danza ceremonial (Figs. 26), and Siembra (Fig. 27) ) are also
in a frieze-like arrangement, although less rigid than in the 'processional' scenes.
To reflect the symmetry of the individual figures, the conspicously horizontal pre-
Columbian scenes and the 'processional' scenes probably hung at either end of
the hall, with the 'rural' scenes in the middle. Between the pre-Columbian and
the 'rural' scenes, the painting Aleqoria al descubrimiento de America must have
hung.21
The compositions of the 'processional' and pre-Columbian scenes are
symetrically arranged. In the first type, one or two figures usually flank the
21 An illustration of this work was unavailable to the author.
 55

composition and a figure or group of figures dominate the central area of the
painting (i. e. Camino al mercado, Fiesta indigena, and Los yumbos) (Figs. 19,
21, and 22). In Camino al mercado,22 the first figure in the procession is a young
boy who carries a bowl of fruit; at his side a tall man carries a vase on his head.
Although a woman carrying a bundle on her back actually closes the composition
on the painting's right side, this area of the composition is dominated by the
slender man with a vase on his shoulder echoing the pose of the man on the left
end of the painting. The center of the composition is dominated by the large figure
of a man who carries a gigantic water vase on his back. Balance and rhythm are
achieved through the placement of the figures in a zig-zag pattern and through
the movement of the figures who stand upright and those who bend down. This
controlled arrangement and the movement of the figures provides the painting
with a very theatrical effect.
The other three paintings of the 'processional' group have similar sym-
metrical compositional arrangements and thus a similar theatrical effect. In Fiesta
indiqena (Fig. 21) the figures carrying the flower offering are flanked by two men
who play the flute. The center of the composition is marked by another musi-
cian. In Los yumbos (Fig. 22) the main group of figures is arranged close to the
center of the painting, this being marked by the central figure who turns towards
the viewer. In Procesion (Fig. 20) the symmetrical arrangement is mantained by
flanking the central group of figures by two smaller groups. Once again the center
of the composition is marked by the figure who turns away from the main group
and faces the viewer.
The 'rural' scenes also relate to one another compositionally. They take
22This is the earliest of these paintings, done in July 1922. The latest is Siembra, done in
January 1923.
 56

place in a shallow space in which large numbers of figures appear. In El oelorio

(1922) (Fig. 17) and Baile (n.d.) (Fig. 16) the main scene takes place at the
center of the composition. In both paintings the placement of the figure on the
left in an angle to the picture plane leads the viewer's eye towards the main
scene. In Baile the eye is led towards the middle-ground where the main scene is
located, then moves to the right where a man dances while a woman besides him
claps. Finally the painting's zig-zag movement is completed by the two figures
on the left who subtly take the eye to the background of the painting. El uelorio
depicts a wake in which the main scene is placed at the center of the composition
with people gathered at the sides. While in Baile the main scene takes place
in the painting's middle ground, in El uelorio it is located in the background
with the rest of the figures forming a semi-circle around it. The main scene is
further emphasized by the dramatization of its portrayal; the figures on either
side swiftly lead the eye to the background where the main scene takes place.
This dramatic group is formed by a foreshortened casket, a half-covered woman
lying on the center, a standing woman on whom the other leans, and a crouching
woman behind her. The attention of the viewer is drawn to this group first, by
the man on the left whose diagonal position towards the picture plane leads the
eye to the background of the painting and second, by the women on the painting's
right side whose glances are directed towards the main scene.
In Untitled (1922) (Fig. 18) the composition differs from the two previous
works'. The main scene, which depicts a man performing some type of magical
ritual, is placed off center in the foreground of the painting. Again, the viewer's
eye is led from one group to the other in a semi-circular movement.
The pre-Columbian scenes are also stylistically related to one another.
The order in which the paintings were done reflects Egas's stylistic evolution. The
 57

earliest works show a very controlled and symmetrical composition, while the later
ones are looser and more dynamic. As in Camino al mercado (Fig. 19) and Fiesta
indigena (Fig. 21) of July and August 1922, the compositions of Cosecha de maiz
(Fig. 23) and Indigenas con vasijas (Fig. 24) of July 1922 are symmetrically
balanced by the figures at either end of the paintings. In addition, to add to the
symmetry of the painting, in Cosecha de maiz the third figure from either side
face one another and reflect one another in their gestures. The rhythm created by
the bent and upright figures provides the paintings with movement. Verticality
is stressed by the vases they carryon their shoulders. As in the 'processional'
paintings, the figures are arranged in a relatively shallow space standing on a
narrow ledge. In the painting's triangular composition, the central figure in the
background serves as a vanishing point; the triangle's sides are marked by the
two maize sticks that are held by the two figures in the foreground.
Ofrenda (1922) (Fig. 25) and Danza ceremonial (c. 1922) (Fig. 26), also
from the pre-Columbian series, show the greater dynamism achieved in the later
paintings of the Jij6n y Caarnafio commission. However Siembra (January 1923)
(Fig. 27), the last to be done of the entire commissiorr., shows a return to the
controlled arrangement and movement of the earlier paintings. The control and
symmetry of this painting perhaps responded to Egas's desire to maintain balance
between all the paintings of the pre-Columbian series, since because of its theme
it would have been placed at the beginning of the series.
Ofthe pre-Columbian scenes Indigenas coticasijas (Fig. 24) most strictly
follows the frieze-like composition. The figures are arranged in a horizontal line
before a sky whose painterly quality makes it appear as a flat wall. The painting's
symmetry is stressed by the placement of the only male figure right at the center
of the composition. The two figures at either end face each other and carry vases
 58

on top of their heads.

Each of the three groups of the Jij6n y Caamaiio series differ from each
other stylistically and thematically; nonetheless, their sharing of a number of
stylistic elements brings the whole series together. In all of them, the figures are
elongated and the backgrounds highly dramatized. Except for the paintings of the
'rural' series, Baile, Velorio, and Untitled, all the paintings from the commission
are arranged in frieze-like compositions. Given the very controlled, and almost
choreographic compositional arrangement of the individual paintings, we can as-
sume that the arrangement of the paintings on the wall itself followed a similar
controlled plan. Indeed to mantain the symmetry and dramatic effects exhibited
in the paintings the frieze-like pre-Columbian paintings must have been hung first,
with Siembra (Fig. 27) at the beginning and Cosecha de Maiz (Fig. 23) at the
end; second, the more loosely composed 'rural' scenes with the most dramatic
work, Velorio (Fig. 17), at the center and Baile (Fig. 16) and Untitled (Fig. 18)
at either end; the very symmetrical and strictly horizontal 'processional' scenes
must have been placed third. Procesion (Fig. 20) must have been placed on the
left extreme, perhaps followed by Fiesta indigena (Fig. 21), Camino al mercado
(Fig. 19), and closing with Los Yumbos (Fig. 22).
Furthermore, the paintings' conspicuous horizontality was probably also
chosen to complement their placement in Jij6n y Caarnafio's library. From a
photograph we know that the fourteen paintings originally hung on the library's
second floor (Fig. 14), in a hall overlooking the main reading area. Therefore, the
paintings were most often observed from the lower level, stressing the frieze-like
effect of their compositions.
 59

3-2.2 Types and Sources of Representation

The Contemporary Indian Scenes

The seven contemporary Indian scenes, both 'processional' and 'rural',

have as their most direct source Egas's first hand observation of Indian customs.
The identification of the scenes depicted in these paintings with rituals performed
in towns near Quito as well as the identification of the garments of the figures
in the paintings with Indian costumes of the same area suggests that Egas must
have based his depictions of contemporary Indians on his observation of them in
the vicinity of Quito.
The four 'processional' paintings, all from 1922, Camino al mercado
(Fig. 19), Procesion (Fig. 20), Fiesta indigena (Fig. 21), and Los yumbos (Fig. 22)
relate to Indian customs commonly practiced to this day by Indians of the towns
near Quito which Egas would have certainly been able to witness during the
:I
1920s. Procesion (Fig. 20) depicts an actual religious procession which is led
by two musicians (compare to a photograph of a procession in Otavalo Fig. 28).
One plays a type of flute called 'pingullo' and the other a small drum known as
'tamboril'i+' When the tamboril and pingullo musicians lead a procession, as in
this procession, their music usually announced the procession's arrival. This was
a widespread custom in many Ecuadorian highland towns, including some towns
neighbouring Quito such as Alangasi, a town only 22 Km. from Quito (see map,
Fig. 29).24 At the center of the painting a man holds the 'guion' (banner) usually
23There are two types of 'pin gull os'. One with six perforations and the other with three. The
one represented in this painting is probably the first type since this type is traditionally played
in conjunction with the 'tamboril' by two different musicians. The three perforation pingullo
is usually played in conjunction with the tamboril by one musician (Paulo de Carvalho-Neto,
Dicciotierio del Folklore Ecuatoriano, vol. 1 (Quito: Editorial Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana,
1964), 34l.
24Segundo Luis Moreno, Historia de la musice en el Ecuador, vol. 1 (Quito: Editorial Casa
 60

.dentified as the priostes' insignia.r" At the back of the procession four men carry
2. pair of incense burners. As depicted in Procesion the burners have two ribbons
attached to their sides from which they are held by two men. This tradition is
again found in many towns near Quito.26
Fiesta indigena (Fig. 21) depicts a group of Indian women carrying a long
stick from which floral arrangements hang. Three men walk besides them playing
flutes. This ritual appears to represent what in traditional saints's festivals is
called 'el paso de las flores' (the passage of the flowers). 27 It takes place the day
·Jefore the actual festival and consists of a procession in which a group of people
carry flowers to the town's church.P On the day of the festival, there is a mass
after which the patron saint is taken on a bier around the town's main plaza by
the processional group. The description of the procession closely parallels that
depicted in Procesion suggesting that Fiesta indigena and Procesion represent
two stages of the same festival.
Camino al mercado (Fig. 19) simply portrays a moment in the carriage
of goods to the market, an activity that is a weekly ritual to most peasants (see
Fig. 30). Finally Los yumbos (Fig. 22) represents a custom practiced by Indians
de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1972), 99-10l.
25'Prioste' is the person who sponsors a saint's festival. In a description of a procession held
on the Lord of Good Hope's festival this banner is described as a wood panel decorated with
brilliant paper flowers with a cross on the top. In addition, two ribbons hang from the sides of
the panel. This description characterizes precisely the banner depicted in Procesi6n (Oswaldo
Viteri, "Dia de fiesta" in Paulo de Carvalho-Neto, Antologia del folklore ecuatoriano, vol. 2
(Cuenca: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1970),71, 76).
26Viteri mentions it in his description of the Lord of Good Hope's festival held in Checa, a
town about 30 Km. north-east of Quito (see map Fig. 29), and Moreno mentions that its use
was widespread in many of the towns north of Quito (Ibid., 75 and Moreno, Histone, 103).
27 Although we have only found reference to it on the report of the Lord of Good Hope's
festival, the coincidence of the other festivities's rituals to other saints's festivals suggests that
'el paso de las flores' was perhaps a necessary ritual of all saint's festivals (Viteri, "Dia de fiesta,"
71, 76).
280ur source does not specify whether the flowers were carried by men, women or by either
(Ibid., 71, 75, 76).
 61

of Ecuador's lowlands, particularly from the eastern Shuar and western Colorado

, communities, in which they migrate to the towns north of Quito to practice a

i!

ritual dance called 'la yumbada' as part of the Corpus Christi ceremonies held in
June.29 In this painting Egas depicted the 'yumbos' on their way to the highlands;
the ritual itself is not portrayed. The 'yumbos' carry the lances, used in the dance,
as supports for their long journey. On their backs they carry embalmed animals
typical of the lowlands in a type of basket, called 'ashanga'.3o Significantly 'la
yumbada' is a ritual which combines lowland and highland Indian practices with
Christian ones.
Today 'la yumbada' is still practiced III Quito's neighbouring towns of
Calder6n, Zambiza, and EI Inca, among others.P Although very close to Quito,
Calder6n and Zambiza were still fairly inaccessible during the 1920s.32 On the
other hand, Egas would have been able to see a 'yumbada' in the town of El Inca
which at the time was a town close to Quito and has since been integrated into
the northern sector of the city (see maps of Quito, Figs. 31 and 32).
Like the 'processional' scenes, the three 'rural' scenes represent customs
which Egas could have known about by just visiting towns near Quito or even
Quito's own neighbourhoods. The situation of the 'rural' scenes in a small Indian
or mestizo village is suggested by the stucco wall that serves as backdrop to the
three paintings. Baile (Fig. 16) represents the popular criollo dance sanjuanito,
performed to this day mostly by Indians in most highland towns of Ecuador.
In Baile a couple is shown dancing in the center of the composition, a woman
with nude torso claps while another man dances, and two musicians play in the
29Frank Salomon, "La 'Yumbada': un Drama Ritual Quichua en Quito," America Indfgena 41
(Enero-Marzo 1981): 114-115.
30Ibid., 116.
31 Ibid., 132.

32Jaime Andrade.
 62

background; a number of onlookers are gathered on the sides.

The other two 'rural' paintings also represent rituals performed in small
rural towns. In Untitled, a man, whose head is covered with a scarf, performs
some type of magical ritual. This man is not dressed with Indian custom and
therefore must be an outsider. In EI veloria an Indian wake is represented. We
see then that the scenes represented in Egas's paintings of contemporary Indian
life took place in towns that were close enough to Quito to be accessible to Egas
either by train or foot within a day.
The assumption that Egas was depicting scenes from Quito's surround-
ings and neighbouring towns in the contemporary scenes is supported by the fact
that most of the figures' garments can be identified with those used in the Indian
communities of those locations. The mixture of different costumes in the same
town was a phenomenon common only in the towns very close to Quito where
Indians from different communities migrated.P" Inspite of his identification Egas's
intention was not to document precisely the customs and rituals of these peoples
but rather to interpret them subjectively. The four 'processional' paintings are
free interpretations of the customs and rituals he observed.i'"
In 1947 the anthropologists Anibal Buitron and Barbara Salisbury Bui-
33Salomon, 125.
34Besides the obvious physical stylization, one of the most obvious deviations taken by Egas
on the representation of the contemporary highland Indians, is the depiction of some of the
women half nude or with loose clothing that shows the body underneath (see Figs. 16, 17, 18,
and 19). Because of the cold temperatures of the Ecuadorian highlands as well as because
of the Indian women's pudicity, they are most often clothed with heavy garments. Another
deviation is seen in the scenes where men appear with their pants (calzoncillos) rolled up above
their knees. The Buitr6ns observe that those Indians who wore long white pants (the most
common type is long enough to cover the knees) often rolled them up below their knees to
prevent getting them soiled, Egas's depiction of them rolled up way above the knee may also
respond to his desire to show the human anatomy (see Figs 17, 19, and 20) (Anibal Buitron and
Barbara Salisbury Buitron, Condiciones de vide y de trabajo del campesino de la Provincia de
Pichincha (Quito: Imp. Caja del Seguro, 1947),54-55).
r
:!

63

tron, in their study on the Pichincha province, described the clothing used at the
time by Indians of the towns of El Inca, Nayon, and Calderon. Although they
mention that a long-sleeved blouse was usually worn under the 'anaco' (the skirt
shown on all the 'processional' and 'rural' paintings), a less common tunic was
also worn.35 This is probably the blouse worn by some of the women depicted
in Camino al mercado (Fig. 19) and Fiesta indigena (Fig. 21) since, as described
by the Buitrons, this white wool tunic was fastened on the shoulders by 'tupus'
(pins).36 It is certainly this type of blouse which is worn by the woman at the
center of the composition in Baile (Fig. 16) and the seated woman on the left side
of Untitled (Fig. 18). The anaco, a rectangular piece of cloth, is worn wrapped
around the waist and belted by two color bands by the women in all the paintings
of contemporary scenes. As seen in Baile the anaco's wrapping often leaves a slit
open on one side revealing the white blouse beneath (see also Fig. 33). The
Buitrons contend that the ana co worn in the towns near Quito is usually blue or
black.37 All the women represented in Untitled. except for one, wear blue anacos.
In the other paintings, however, the women wear either bright-colored anacos
or a color slip under the blue anaco. Following descriptions of the traditional
Indian dress, although color anacos were sometimes worn. a color slip was not.
Consequently, we can assume that the use of this article of clothing responds
to Egas's lush for brighter colors. As seen in most of these paintings a small
rectangular 'rebozo' (a sort of shawl) is worn by some of the 'women in Egas's
paintings. According to the Buitrons the rebozo worn in the area of El Inca,
Calderon, and Nayon is usually orange or bright yellow,38 as the one depicted in
35Ibid., 55.
36Ibid.
37Ibid.
38Ibid.
 64

Procesioti (Fig. 20) where an Indian woman carries it folded on top of her head.
In Baile the women in the audience wear it over their heads.
The Buitrons description of male garments worn in these same towns
corresponds more closely to Egas's paintings than do those of the women. The
men wear white pants ending just below the knee and shirt over which they wear
a narrow, striped red poncho.i" The red poncho described by the Buitrons can
be seen in Camino al mercado, Fiesta indigena, Procesion, and Untitled. In the
latter and in Baile a larger red poncho is worn by the men in the middle and
foreground.
The parallels between the Indian clothing represented in Egas's paintings
and the garments known to have been worn in the towns north of Quito and
parallels between his depictions of contemporary Indian scenes with festivals and
rituals practiced in those towns suggest that Egas actually used Indians from
Quito's vicinity as his models. On the other hand, Egas took enough liberties in
his representation of them to indicate that his paintings of contemporary Indian
Ii
life were not simple ethnological documents based on mere observation. Egas's
representation in his 'rural' scenes of a popular dance, an act of sorcery, and a
wake serve, along with the 'processional' scenes, as a sort of ensemble in which
his intention was probably to give a complete view of the contemporary Indian
culture.
39Ibid., 54. The depiction of some men without shirts is not a common custom and again
may respond to Egas's desire to show the human anatomy.
 65

The pre-Columbian Scenes and their Relation to the Development of

Ethnology and National Historical Literature

Although Egas's own observation of contemporary Indian life served as

a direct source for his contemporary Indian rituals, accounts about the Incas
given in history textbooks available to Egas appear to have been the most direct
source for the scenes of the pre-Columbian past. Of the six pre-Columbian scenes,
Cosecha de maiz and Siembra represent scenes of sowing and harvesting, Ritual
(1922), Ojrerula; and Danza ceremonial religious rituals of the sorts related to
sowing and harvesting. Indigenas con vasijas is also probably related to sowing
and harvesting because it represents Indians with vases, an element that appears
in both Cosecha de Maiz and Siembra.
The pre-Columbian scenes have been identified as representations of Inca
life. First, although Egas could have depicted any Ecuadorian pre-Columbian
culture, particularly the Schyris who inhabited the area of Quito before the Incas,
and whose lives had been popularized since the mid nineteenth century when Juan
de Velasco's Histoxie del Reino de Quito en la America Meridional was published,
he probably chose to depict the Inca conforming to Jijon y Caamafio's belief that
the account of the Schyris was mostly legendary.t" Second, the tunics worn by
the men, as seen in O/renda (Fig. 25) and Ritual (Fig. 15), resemble those known
to have been worn by Inca men as seen, for example, in a seventeenth century
illustration by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala (Fig. 34).41 And third, the vases
depicted in Ofretida, Siembra (Fig. 27), Cosecha de .1Ia(z (Fig. 23), and Indigenas
40 Jacinto Jijon y Caamaiio, "Examen critico de la Historia del Reino de Quito del P. Juan de
Velasco, de la Cornpafiia de Jesus", Boletfn de la Sociedad Ecuatoriana de Estudios Americanos
(later Boletfn de la Academia Nacional de Historia) 1, no. 1 (June-July 1918): 33-63.
41 Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, La nueva cronies y buen gobierno (1587/1615) (Lima:
Editorial Cultura, 1956), 122.
 66

con uasijas (Fig. 24) are identifiable as Inca vases. Clearly Egas's visual model
for these vases was .Iijon y Caamafio's own collection of Inca objects. In 1919
.Iijon y Caamaiio and Carlos Manuel Larrea published an article in which they
summarized their findings at an Ecuadorian Inca site and reproduced some of the
vases found (Figs. 35 and 36).42 The shapes and surface designs of these vases
resemble those painted by Egas.
However, the question remains: What sources did Egas use for his rep-
resentation of Inca rituals? Certainly .Iijon y Caarnaiio's friendship must have
provided in itself a vast source of information for Egas.43 Through conversations
with him, Egas must have learned about the Incas and must have become aware
of the early Spanish chroniclers' accounts and of the discoveries of contemporary
archeology and ethnology. The transmission of this information was, however,
mainly through conversations with Jijon y Caamafio himself since his writings
were more systematic archeological reports than ethnological elucidations and
therefore would not have interested a layman like Egas.44
Although the early Spanish chronicles gave detailed information about
the Inca customs during the period of the conquest, they were unavailable to the
common reader and their prose was often dense and badly written. Furthermore,
although their descriptions of Inca ceremonies are detailed they coincide with
42"Un cementerio incasico en Quito y not as acerca de los Incas en el Ecuador ," Revista de la
Sociedad Juridico-Literaria 20 (March/April 1918): 159-260; Jijon y Caamafio , La religion del
Imperio de 10s Incas (Quito: Tipografia y encuadernacion Salesiana, 1919).
43Lack of documentation on the closeness ofEgas's and Jijon y Caarnafio's friendship prevents
us from asserting that it was indeed Jij6n y Caamafio's knowledge of the pre-Columbian world
which inspired Egas.
44See for example Contribuci6n a1 conocimiento de 10s aborigenes de la provincia de Imbabura
en la republica del Ecuador (Madrid: Blass y cia. Impr., 1912); EI tesoro del Itschimbia (London:
John Bale, sons and Danielson, n.d.); Los tincullpas y notas acerca de la meta1urgia de 10s
aborigenes del Ecuador (Quito: Tip. y Ecuadernaci6n Salesianas, 1920). In all of these he
applied a strict scientific methodology to his typological and chronological studies of the ceramic
and metalurgy of the Ecuadorian pre-Columbian peoples.
 67

Egas's depictions only in the most general sense. Egas appears to have taken
great liberties in his interpretation of Inca ceremonies: Therefore, very general
historical descriptions would have served his purpose.
Two histories of Ecuador that were popular during the first two decades
of the century probably served as his main sources. These are Pedro Fermin
Ceballos's Resumen de la bistoxie del Ecuador desde su origen hasta 1845 pub-
lished in 1870 and Federico Gonzalez Suarez's Historia general de la republica
del Ecuador published between 1892 and 1903.45 Ceballos's book was widely
distributed since 1881 when it was published as a compendium used in many
Ecuadorian Catholic schools.r" This compendium was most possibly used at the
Escuela de los Hermanos Cristianos de El Cebollar, an elementary school which
Egas attended in the 1890's,47 since it was administered by the Instituto de los
Hermanos de las escuelas Cristianas which also published the book. It is through
this compendium that Egas would have originally learned Ecuadorian history. "
On the other hand, Gonzalez Suarez's Historia general de la republica
del Ecuador was longer than Ceballos's, if more scholarly and enjoyable to read.
In this work Gonzalez Suarez gave a revisionist account of Ecuadors's pre-Colum-
bian past49 in which he challenged Velasco's account of the Shyris as legendary.
45Lima: Imprenta del estado, 1870; Quito: Imprenta del Clero, 1890-1903; subsequent cita-
tions are to the following edition: Quito: Editorial Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1969.
46Instituto de los hermanos de las escuelas cristianas, Compendio abreviado de la Historia
del Ecuador (Guayaquil: Imprenta de El Comercio, 1881).
47Museo del Banco Central, Camilo Egas (Quito: Museo del Banco Central del Ecuador,
1980), n.p.
48Although Egas may have been aware of Velasco's Historia del Reino de Quito en la America
Meridional (1780s), due to the 1918 publisized polemic that arose around this work in (See
Jaramillo Alvarado (1925), 55-72) he would have not used it as a reference to his depictions of
the Incas. First because Velasco's discussion concentrated on the history of the Schyris rather
than on the sixty year rule of the Incas in Ecuador. Second its length and density would not
have attracted Egas was more interested on seeing actual Indian festivals than on reading about
them (Claire Egas Richards, Personal Communication, January 1986).
49The first three volumes of his six volume history were published in 1892. In 1894 volume
 68

Although it was longer, compnsmg seven volumes of about 1200 pages each, a
shorter version of it appeared in 1915 in the form of a textbook which Egas could
have used. 50 But even if Egas did not read Gonzalez Suarez history it could
have been related to him by Jijon y Caarnafio whose mentor had been Gonzalez
Suarez.P! In addition, by the turn of the century, Gonzalez Suarez had become a
very important personality of whom even the young Egas would have aware. In
1906 Gonzalez Suarez was appointed Archbishop of Quito, the highest position
in the country's church hierarchy. Many elements depicted in Egas's paintings
reflect those described in Ceballos's and Gonzalez Suarez's accounts. And indeed
the vagueness of their descriptions of Inca religious ceremonies allowed Egas to
freely interprete them.
Of the six paintings of the pre-Columbian past three represent scenes
of sowing and harvesting and the others religious rituals of the sorts related to
sowing and harvesting cycles. Ceballos and Gonzalez Suarez agree, as many other
sources do, that sowing and harvesting were of prime importance to the Incas.
Because the Incas knew that agriculture depended on seasonal cycles, they came
to consider the sun as the supreme being who controlled their destinies. Most of
the Inca rituals performed throughout the year were related to the worship of the
sun. As Gonzalez Suarez said, "The festivals of the Sun ... preceded, accompanied,
or followed the agricultural labour particularly maize cultivation.i'P?
Neither Cevallos nor Gonzalez Suarez mention how the Incas actually
four was published and the rest in the subsequent years (Gonzalez Suarez, Histone general,
XV.
50 Elementos de hisiorie general de la Republica del Ecuador, compuestos para 105 alumnos
del Pension ado Nacional, fundado y dixigido por el Dr. Pedro Pablo Borja (Quito: Tip. de la
'Prensa Catolica', 1915).
51 Jijon y Caarnafio was not only a close friend of Gonzalez Suarez. He was first acquainted
with archeology by Gonzalez Suarez, who in 1906 introduced him to the group of young amateur
archeologists. (Jose Maria Vargas, Jacinto Jijon y Caamaiio, 14).
52GonzaIez Suarez, Histone general, 220.
 69

sowed the land. However, Gonzalez Suarez does mention that smgmg, mUSIC
playing and chicha drinking often accompanied the agricultural work.53 In fact,
in one of Huaman Poma's illustrations, the Chacm-yapuy quilla festival (sowing
month in the crops), he shows a group of men working on the land while a woman
brings a drink and a group of three women sing on the side (Fig. 37).54 In Egas's
Siembra men and women work as a man plays the flute on the painting's left
side. Large ceramic vases which may contain water to soften the earth, or perhaps
chicha, are carried into the working place. On the other hand, Egas's depiction of
the sticks are probably based on his observation of contemporary agricultural
practices (Fig. 38)55 since Cevallos and Gonzalez Suarez do not describe the
agricultural tools and those depicted by Egas parallel those used by Indians today.
Egas's use of Ceballos's and Gonzalez Suarez's accounts is also evident
in his ceremonial scenes. Danza ceremonial (Fig. 26) represents a man playing
the flute while a group of nude women dance in front of a fire. This painting
takes place in a high plateau and the background is covered with clouds and
smoke. Neither author gives a specific reference to this particular activity; but
Ceballos does mention that in March the 'M uzhuc-nina ' festival, or festival of the
renovation of the sacred fire, was celebrated to mark the beginning of the Spring
equinox. 56 On the dawn of March 21, the people awaited for the first rays of sun to
53Ibid., 225-226. Chicha is a beverage made out of fermented corn.
54The legend at the foot of the illustration reads: "tiempo de labranza-Hayllinmi Inca" , the
second part of the legend reads: "songs of the Inca during sowing" (Cuarnan Poma de Ayala,
175). The example from Guarnan Poma is used simply to illustrate the similarities for Egas
could not have been familiar with his work since it was published, for the first time, in the
1930s. Garcilaso reiterates that the sowing of the Inca's land was accompanied with songs
(Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Obras completas del Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, ed. P. Carmelo
Saenz de Santa Maria, S.I., vol. 2 (Madrid: Ediciones Atlas, 1963), 150).
55Guaman Poma's illustration (Fig. 37) shows the use of sticks as agricultural tools; since we
know that Egas had no access to Huarnan Poma's work and that similar tools were used by
Indians during Egas's time, he was probably depicting the tools of contemporary Indians.
56 Cevallos, Resumen, 148. See also Gonzalez Suarez, Historia general, 252.
 70

appear on the horizon. If the day was clear the Inca would start a fire by holding
a mirror towards the sun; if the day was cloudy the fire was started through the
friction of two sticks. As soon as the fire had been started the festivities began.
The fire started that day was considered sacred and needed to be continously
kindled. The so called 'virgenes del sol' were in charge of keeping the fire alive
throughout the year.57 Although Ceballos does not mention how the festivities
were celebrated or how the fire was actually kept going, the presence of a fire
and of the nude women dancing around it in Egas's painting suggests that this
may be a depiction of the 'Muzhuc-nina.' festival, specifically the 'nurturing of
the sacred fire'. Danza ceremonial is related to Siembra and Cosecha de maiz in
the association of the 'Mzhuc-nina' festival with agriculture. By keeping alive the
'sacred fire' in this festival of the Sun the Incas perpetuated the worship of the sun
throughout the year. On the other hand, the nudity of the women is problably
related to Egas's identification of the 'virgins' with the European concepts of
purity and chastity traditionally identified with nymphs and virgins. 58
Another example of Egas's creative interpretation of Ceballos's and Gon-
zalez Suarez's accounts can be seen in Ritual and Ofrenda. These are also re-
lated to rituals performed in honor of the sun and are described in Cevallos and
Gonzalez Suarez. Ritual (Fig. 15) represents a ceremony that takes place on top
of a hill that overlooks a valley. A group of nude women, perhaps the same as
those of Danza ceremonial, are here involved in a ritual in which a man, whose
head is covered with a scarf, extends his arms towards some of them. The rest of
the women behind the man cover their heads in dramatic movements. No specific
57 Cevallos, Resumen, 128, 148. The practice of having 'virgins of the Sun' was introduced to
Ecuador by the Incas (Gonzalez Suarez, Historia general, 205).
58 See James Hall, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art (New York: Harper and Row,
Publishers, Inc., 1979), 226-227.
 71

reference to this ceremony is given by either author. However, given the coinci-
dence of Cevallos's description of the Incas's clothing with the man portrayed in
this painting, it seems evident that the scene represented here is related to a rit-
ual in which the Inca participated. In all the paintings, men appear dressed with
loincloths or loose tunics; the man in Ritual has his head covered with a white
scarf or turban and is dressed with a short tight tunic. This type of clothing is
described by Ceballos as that of the Inca:

[The Inca] wore fine vicuna wool, embelished with selected colors and lav-
ishly spattered gold and precious stones. He covered his head with a turban
with a crimson fringe that hung down to the shoulders. 59

As in Cevallos's description, the central figure in Ritual has his head covered
with a scarf. The tunic he wears is rich in colors and clings to the body as a wool
garment would. This figure reappears in Cosecha de ttiaiz (Fig. 23), third from
the left, where he is also noticeable for his clothing and gestures. Here he also
wears a turban and short tight tunic. His gestures are as dramatic as those of
Ritual; he extends his arms and hands towards the corn on the ground as if he
was blessing it. In both paintings the garb and the dramatic gestures point to
the importance of this figure in the paintings. Hence he must be an important
member of the Inca hierarchy if not the Inca himself. If the central figure of Ritual
is the Inca himself, then who are the women who so dramatically cover their faces?
Their nudity suggests that they may be the 'virgins of the Sun'. Cevallos stated
that the virgins consacrated to the sun entered a sort of monastery when they
were very young. Although they were supposed to mantain vows of chastity the
Inca was allowed, if he wished, to take one of them as his wife.60 In Ritual it
is probably this ceremony which is taking place. The covering of their faces and
59 Cevallos, Resumen, 132.
6°Ibid., 129.
 72

.urning away from the Inca probably indicates their respect of him. Since the
Inca rulers thought of themselves as direct descendants of the Sun, they were
indeed treated with great respect.I" All those who approached him lowered their
eyes and head as a sign of respect.P
Ofrenda (Fig. 25) represents a ritual of grace for the goods brought by
the harvesting. It shows four men carrying a llama on a platform while a number
of dressed and nude women walk behind them carrying vases on their shoulders.
Cevallos and Gonzalez Suarez mention that large numbers of llamas were sac-
rificed in most ceremonies in honor of the sun, and certainly in the two most
important festivals of the year, the 'Capac-Raimi' or Royal Festival in Decem-
ber and the 'Inti-Raimi' or Festival of the Sun in June.63 According to Cevallos
such sacrifices also took place during the 'Muzhuc-nina.' festival suggesting that
Ofrenda and Danza ceremonial may be depictions of two aspects of the same
ceremony/" Thus, Ofrenda may be an offering presented during the Inti-Raimi
festival and consequently would be related to Cosecha de maiz. The 'Inti-Raimi'
festival was important as it was linked to the adoration of the sun to assure a
successful harvest.
Finally Cosecha de maiz (Fig. 23) culminates the agricultural year with
the harvest of maize. As in Siembra vases are being carried to the harvesting
area. Again the vases are probably filled with chicha to be consummed during
the harvesting. Since the man dressed with the elaborate garment appears to be
the same as the one in Ritual he can be identified as the Inca who gathers the
corn before him, perhaps to bless it, as his gesture suggests.
61See for instance Cevallos, Resumen, 129 or Gonzalez Suarez, Historie general, 20l.
62Cevallos, Resumen, 139.
63Gonzalez Suarez, Historia general, 250-251; Cevallos, Resumen, 146, 149.
64Cevallos, Resumen, 147-148.
 73

The pre-Columbian scenes then develop in a program in which the most

important events of Inca life are depicted. The cycle begins with the sowing of the
land, continues with the 'Muzhuc-nina.' festival, in which the health of the crops
was prayed for by mantaining a fire throughout the year, as one of the symbols
of the sun; the offering of a sacrifice before the harvesting season is shown and
finally the actual harvesting. Hence, these paintings conform to a program of
rituals devoted to the Sun and to agriculture.
The identification of the hilly lanscape that serves as backdrop to all
these paintings with that near Quito suggests that Egas was identifying his de-
pictions of Inca life, as specifically Ecuadorian. In Ritual (Fig. 15) the very
characteristic color patches of the sowed ground of the areas near Quito can be
seen. In Siembra (Fig. 27) a very large mountain serves as backdrop; its shape
resembles the Pichincha mountain at which foot lies Quito. The high plateaus on
which the scenes take place also resemble the many dry hill-tops near Quito during
the first decades of the century and which now form part of the city. These scenes
could take place in Bellavista, a neighbourghood in the north-east end of Quito,
or La Lorna in the south-west (see map of Quito Fig. 31). Egas's depiction of a
recognizable landscape in conjunction with the representation of pre-Columbian
rituals responds to his desire to identify those rituals as Ecuadorian.
The fourteenth work in the .Iijon y Caarnafio series not yet discussed is
Alegoria al descubrimienio de America. This painting pulls all the others together
as a coherent program. Its subject indicates that Egas's aim was the representa-
tion of the history of the Ecuadorian Indian culture. In the first six paintings of
scenes and rituals of the pre-Columbian past, Indians are shown in sowing and
harvesting rituals and ceremonies. The sequence of scenes of the pre-Columbian
world is broken by the location of Aleqoria al descubrimiento de America in the
 74

center. The new era, Indians today, is shown in the next seven paintings, to the
right, which portray the most important events in the everyday life of the con-
temporary Indian. By bringing together Indians of the past and present, Egas
was showing the perpetuation of past Indian traditions in contemporary Indian
culture.
Egas's intent in his depictions of Indians in the Jij6n y Caarniio series was
therefore to synthesize the Indian world within the fourteen scenes. He did this by
showing events in Indian life that would summarize not only the external reality of
Indians but also their system of beliefs: Thus he portrayed sacred rituals or scenes
related to them. Although the stylization, artificiality, and theatricality of these
scenes might be misinterpreted as contradicting Egas's intent to portray the 'true'
Indian world, there is little doubt that these paintings express Egas's re-evaluation
of Indians, an attitude shared by many of his contemporaries. Egas lived in a
time when the solution to the social problems of Indians was believed to lie in
their integration into the dominant society, namely the Spanish-white population.
This integration necessarily implied a cultural 'whitening' of Indians;65 that IS,

Indians were to be educated in the ways of the white population.

That Egas shared these views can be inferred through an statement that,
65Even Agustin Cueva Tamariz , one of the most progressive Ecuadorian social scientists of
the 1910s and 1920s, believed that in order to consolidate Ecuador as a nation it was not
only necessary to eliminate exploitative working systems but also to integrate Indians into the
dominant white society, even at the expense of their cultural values (")luestra organizaci6n
social y la servidumbre," Revista de la Sociedad Juridico-Litererie 14, no. 27 (April 1915):
57). Remnants of this idea of integration of Indians by culturally 'whitening' them can be
perceived today in some sectors of the society. A significant example of this view is a speech
given in 1972 by the then president of Ecuador, General Guillermo Rodriguez Lara, in which
he stated that "... we all become white when we accept the goals of national culture" (Ronald
Stutzman, " 'EI Mestizaje': An All-Inclusive Ideology of Exclusion," in Norman E. Whitten,
Jr., ed., Cultural Transformations and Ethnicity in Modern Ecuador (Urbana: University of
Chicago Press, 1981), 45 -. Originally cited in Whitten, Ecuadorian Ethnocide and Indigenous
Ethnogenesis: Amazonian Resurgence amidst Andean Colonialism (Copenhagen: International
Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, Document 23, 1976), 10-12).
 75

though made almost a decade after the completion of the Jij6n y Caarnafio com-
mission, may be applied to the attitude expressed in those earlier paintings. On
i I
I! the occassion of Egas's first individual exhibition in New York Egas commented
on his views on the Ecuadorian Indians:

Indian life and Indian organization in South America are doomed. The
native culture has degenerated and gone to pieces since the Spanish
conquest ... Indians must be taught white civilization, modern methods,
and ideas. Otherwise they are doomed to even further oppression and
degrad ationP"

Therefore, by stylizing and indeed Europeanizing them Egas was expressing his
re-evaluation of them in those terms. He no longer showed them as the ragged,
dirty, and curious characters of Costumbrista painting; he was now giving them
value by providing them with European characteristics. Of course, his view, like
that of the Costumbristas, was still a Romantic one. He was idealizing Indians
in a way that did not entirely correspond to their past or present reality.
His painting of this period reflect the Romantic attitude popular during
the first decades of the century among those who wanted to be sympathetic to the
Indians' conditions. It also reflects a stage in the development in Egas's attitude
towards Indians. In the mid 1920s, while still elongating the figure, his depictions
of Indians were no longer artificial stylizations of them. Instead they became
strong expressions of the Indian world which reflected an advancement towards a
more socialized expression of it, one closer to Indigenismo.

! I

66 "Indian Peasant of the Andes Drawn by Young Artist Here, [c. 1931]''' Claire Egas Richards

Papers, New York City.

 CHAPTER 4

THE MID 1920s: THE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN MODERNISM

ON EGAS; CHANGES IN STYLE AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS
INDIANS

After completing the .Iijon y Caarnafio commission in 1923, Egas left

Ecuador for Paris where he stayed until the end of 1925. After a return trip to
Ecuador he left again in 1927 to settle permanently in New York. His Paris and
Ecuadorian period from 1923 to 1927 marks one of his most creative periods, dur-
ing which he developed a distinct style. The figures of Indians were enlarged and
rendered monumental. This new mode of representation expressed new formal
interests as well as a new attitude towards Indians.
The study of the sources of the stylistic change from the narrative and
decorative works of the early 1920s to the monumental ones of the mid 1920s is
the subject of this chapter. Concentrating in the years Egas spent in Paris, we
point to the stylistic differences between the early and the mid 1920s paintings.
Then, the sources of this change will be considered: Egas's contact with artists
and works of the School of Paris as well as his contact with other Latin American
artists who were in Paris at the time and who shared his formal and thematic
interests were two of the incentives that led to his change in style. The attitudes
towards Primitive cultures prevalent in Europe at the time as well as the growing

76
 77

presence of nationalism in the arts must have also informed his work of the mid
1920s. Finally, the impact of Egas's mid 1920s paintings on the Ecuadorian
artistic atmosphere of this period will be analyzed.

4-1 The Parisian Years 1923-1925: Iconic Images of Indians

Egas's stay in Paris between 1923 and 1925 was an experience of great
importance to his artistic carreer. Although he continued to focus on the subject
of Indians in his paintings, his portrayals of them became less narrative and
decorative and more iconic and monumental than before (see Figs. 27 and 39).
He replaced the background landscape with a fiat undefined space, and the large
figural groups with compositions of no more than two or three figures.
The development towards the style of the mid 1920s can be appreciated
III a painting of 1922/23. In Gregorio y Carmela (Fig. 40), probably done in
Ecuador prior to his departure, the large figural groups present in the Jijon y
Caarnafio paintings were replaced by a group of three figures placed close to the
picture plane. They take up almost all of the painting's vertical space. The
background landscape, though not totally eliminated, has been abstracted and
generalized. The bright and contrasting colors have been replaced by subdued
and less dramatic ones, the sharp contrasts between light and shadow, by flat
colored shapes. The space has become shallower anticipating the fiat, undefined
backgrounds of the paintings of the next three years.
On the other hand, the continuity with the earlier style can be seen in
the figural treatment which remains angular and elongated and in a composition
that is still basically symmetrical. Its center is defined by a vase which serves as
the painting's focal point. As in the earlier paintings, the vase is also a reference
to archeology.
 'i8

Past the stage represented by Gregorio y Carmela, in later paintings

figures were subsequently enlarged and distorted, the background almost com-
pletely eliminated, and the light replaced by subdued but expressive color. What
brought about this change in style after 19237 According to Raul Andrade, dur-
ing his first months in Paris, Egas went through a period of re-evaluation of his
artistic expression, during which he even stopped painting for a while.' The re-
evaluation came about after his exposure to Modernist art, particularly to the
work of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and George Braque (1882-1963), among oth-
ers. Whether or not Egas personally knew Picasso, Jose Marla Sert (1876-?) and
Oscar Dominguez (1906-:1957), as some sources claim.i Egas's subsequent work
demonstrate that he was most certainly aware of these three artists' work. Egas's
crisis did not last long and already by March of 1924 he had his first Parisian
exhibition. At the Exposition d'Art Arnerfcain-Laz.in at the Musee Calliera he
exhibited drawings of Indians as well as three oil paintings (a self-portrait and two
still lifesj.i' Reirato de India (1924) (Fig. 41), a drawing probably exhibited at the
Musee Galliera, already displayed Egas's new style. In it, the stylized naturalism
of seen in the portrait of Egas's friend Guillermo Latorre, Retrato de Guillermo
Latorre (1922) (Fig. 42), evolved into a bolder, almost agressive depiction of the
head of an Indian woman. As was the case with other paintings of this time, in
1Raul Andrade.
2Ibid.
3La Maison de I'Amerique Latine and L'Academie Internationale des Beaux-Arts, Exposition
d'Art Americein-Letin (Paris: Musee Gallier a, March-April 1924). Although in the catalogue
for the exhibition it is not acknowledged that drawings ofIndians were exhibited, on his personal
copy of the catalogue Egas wrote " ... 42 liste, Indiennes de l'Ecuateur" suggesting that they
were. Furthermore, in the exhibition's review published in the Revue de l'Amerique Latin, R.
Cogniat stated that Egas exhibited "Bon dessins ... qui present ainsi quelques curieux types
d'indiens" (Raymond Cogniat, "Exposition d'art americain-latin au Musee Gallier a," Revue de
l'Ainerique Latin 7 (1924): 437). See also "La peinture latine [c. 1924]''' Claire Egas Richards
Papers, New York City.
 79

Heirato de India Egas came to simplify his line and form to achieve a stronger
representation of his sitter.
The purpose of this exhibition, which was the first exhibition of Latin
American art in a major French art museum, was to give a global view of Latin
American art. Therefore, besides contemporary and Colonial art, pre-Columbian
and contemporary Indian artifacts were included in the 'retrospective section'.
In this section Egas exhibited his own collection of Ecuadorian Indian objects, a
further indication of his interest in Indians and their way of life as well as their art.
Egas's collecting of contemporary Indian artifacts was rare at a time when more
value was given in Ecuador to Colonial art and appreciation for pre-Columbian
objects was just beginning.
In 1925 Egas participated m three exhibitions in which the oils and
drawings of Indians already exhibited his new style. In Race indienne (Fig. 39),
included in the Salon des Independents, the elongated and stylized figures of his
earlier works were now covered by heavy and brightly colored clothing which were
in themselves the most expressive elements of the painting. The critic Raymond
Cogniat found that the " bursting spot of [the] red cloth at the foreground ... ,
[which was]... enhanced by green and blue spots, ... [created] a violent harmony
of the most successful effect."4 Indeed, this painting has a monumentality and
force unsurpassed by any of Egas's paintings of the time.
Although the stylized naturalism of his earlier paintings was replaced in
Race indienne by the exaggerated voluptuousness of figures which cover almost
all of the pictorial space available (compare to El oelorio (Fig. 17) ), the drama
and theatricality present in the earlier paintings was still apparent. Before, drama
4Raymond Cogniat, "Les artistes americains aux salons du printemps," Revue de I'Amerique
Latine 9 (1925): 550.
 80

and theatricality were achieved through stage-like compositions and strong light
and shadow contrasts; in Race indienne they were achieved by physically trans-
forming the figures into activated entities. In this painting line not only defined
the figural count ours but actually enveloped them in a swirling movement, as seen
in the way the body of the women in the center was defined. The strong light and
shadow contrasts were replaced by subtle modeling. The boldness of the color
and the use of a low vanishing point made the figures project abruptly into the
viewer's space. However, the most important dramatic effect was achieved by the
figures' rigid but contorted gestures. The proportions were distorted for greater
dramatization: the hands and feet enlarged disproportionately and consequently
emphasized, in contrast to disproportionately smaller heads. These deviations
from classical proportions along with the figures contorted gestures served an
expressive purpose. The man's grimace and his forshortened figure add to his
challenging if dignified attitude; conversely, the contorted figure in the center ex-
presses profound sadness; the woman in the background hides behind her 'rebozo'
as if with shame.
In Race indienne Egas used gestures. bold colors, and flat and a shallow
space to create specific dramatic effects. In other paintings of the time, as in
Homeros (Fig. 43), similar elements were used. The figures are rendered anony-
mous by representing their faces partially "risible: two hide their faces behind
their hats, another behind a large 'rondador '. Those faces that are visible, are
distorted as if seen through a wide-angle lense. Egas used these expressionistic
devices with the intention of dramatizing the Indian's self-image and, what he
perceived as, their states of mind. In Race indienne the sadness and humility that
characterizes Indians today was portrayed through this new style which expressed
more effectively than before Egas's concern for the Indians' struggle.
 81

In the Fall of 1925 Egas had an individual exhibition at the Galerie

Carmine in Paris. This was his most important exhibition there and Egas's
only individual exhibition in Paris. Almost all of the works exhibited were of
Indian subject matter. In the catalogue the list of works is divided into two
groups: 'peintures d'indiens de l'Equateur' and 'dessins'. At least half the titles
were about Indian themes; for instance Napo, Otavalo, Sambisa, Del Oriente,
Camvane 'Oiaoalo ', and Nu de femme 'Cotacahe' refer to Ecuadorian towns or
regions largely populated by Indians. Others, such as Le 'rebozo ' rouge, the
already mentioned Race indienne, and Longas (or Indian girls) all refer to Indian
themes. From their titles, Ballet indien and Tetes et tnceurs d'indiens, we know
that the two drawings exhibited also portrayed Indians. It is clear that by this
time Egas was completely immersed in the subject of Indians.
Some of the works exhibited at the Galerie Carmine are stylistically
related to Retrato de India and Race indienne. In Caravane 'Otavalo' (1925)
(Fig. 45) a group ofIndians tumble behind one another while playing 'rondadores'
(Indian pan-pipe). He used a low focal point and a ledge-like tilted plane to give an
appeareance of instability to the figures. Like in Race indienne, and in contrast
to the .Iijon y Caamaiio paintings, the figures have been generalized; they are
now anonymous entities that portray gestures of sadness and drunkenness. Color
no longer defines the figure; instead the figures' clothing is treated as flat and
enlarged planes of color. Using a generalized, expressive style Egas's intent may
have been to create a figural 'type', rather than a specific individual, in which
the Indians' nature was expressed. In his mid 1920s paintings, Indians became
more of a symbol of the Indians' character and state of mind than a naturalistic
depiction of them. Egas synthesized the Indians' world view: their struggle, their
suffering, and their conformity with life.
 82

Titles that evoke abstract concepts further contributed to the general-

ization of the subject. This is seen in particular in two paintings of nude female
figures, an abstract subject in itself, whose titles refer to names of Indian towns
north of Quito. In the painting Oiabalo, Sambisa, Cotacachi'' (1924) (Fig. 46)
a nude woman is shown sitting in an interior with her back to the viewer. Al-
though the woman does not appear to be Indian, an Indian tapestry hangs in
the background as a reference to the specific Indian communities north of Quito
(See Fig. 29). In Desnudo 'Zambiza' (c. 1924) (Fig. 47) the reference to the In-
dian race is made through the actual depiction of a nude Indian woman whose
figure, as that in other mid 1920s works, is enlarged and distorted for expressive
purposes. Thus in the mid 1920s the use of these titles for the representation of
female nudes suggests that Egas was using the nudes as symbols of the population
of those towns or regions rather than as individual portraits.
Titles that evoke abstract ideas were used in other paintings that do not
specifically refer to Indian towns but in which the Indian figure stood for abstract
concepts. In Insidieuse (1925) (Fig. 48) the idea of deceit is expressed by Egas's
depiction of a large Indian woman who partially covers her contorted face behind
her unnaturally large arm. Her head appears as if wrapped by the large oval of
her seated figure.
The change towards the simplified style of the mid 1920s thus expressed a
more generalized, more abstract idea of Indians. The Indian figure was no longer
part of a representation of past and present Indian customs but rather stood for
a more generalized and more complete representation of the Indian world which
5The name of the second town in the title of this work was mispelled by the artist; the correct
spelling is 'Zambiza'. The titles of Otabalo, Sambisa, Cotacachi and Caravane 'Otavalo' were
written by the author on the back of some 1920s photographs of them. These photgraphs are
in the pocession of his widow.
 83

comprised their social, political, and economic status in the Ecuadorian society.
Egas was no longer interested in the specific details of Indian life but instead in a
more profound representation of the Indian way of life. By distorting the figure
to disproportionate dimensions Egas was able to expresss the Indian's suffering
and social struggle.
The sources of this change in style and attitude are found in Egas's con-
tact with the School of Paris, his contact with Latin American artists who shared
his ideological and stylistic goals, the widespread fascination with Primitive cul-
tures in Europe since the late nineteenth century, and the development of ideas
about nationalism in the arts in Latin America. The first two were necessarily re-
lated to the latter ones. Primitivism had been a major factor in the development
of Modernism, which in turn influenced the Latin American artists then living in
Paris. These artists, in turn, were influenced by the development of nationalism
in the arts.

4-1.1 Contact with the School of Paris

Egas's contact with the School of Paris undoubtedly contributed to the

stylistic changes in his work. Although Egas had been in Europe before, this trip
to Paris brought him for the first time in contact with the avant-garde. During his
stay in Rome from 1911 to 1914 and in Madrid from 1920 to 1922 he could have
been in contact with avant-garde movements there; yet, he avoided them. During
his stay in Italy, a Futurist exhibition had taken place in Florence in 1913-1914;
while in Madrid Ultraism, an artistic and literary movement which combined
elements of Cubism and Futurism, was at its climax; one of its main represen-
tatives, the Uruguayan painter Rafael Barradas (1890-1929), had an individual
 84

exhibition of overtly Futurist work in March of 1920,6 which Egas could have
seen. And yet Egas chose to focus his attention in artistic espressions that were
no longer considered innovative in Western Europe: He adhered to a style related
to Italian Symbolism and Post-Impressionism and Spanish Modernismo, which
were accepted primarily in the official art circles of both countries." In Spain,
probably through his connection with the Real Academia de San Fernando where
he studied, Egas came in contact with the works of Ignacio Zuloaga and Joaquin
Sorolla y Bastidas (1853-1924). In addition, upon his arrival in Madrid Egas
often visited Anglada Camarasa's studio.f However, his arrival in Paris put him,
for the first time, in direct contact with Modernist art; he could no longer avoid
it. His acknowledgement of the impact of the artists of the School of Paris on him
is found in a statement he made in 1926 soon after his return to Ecuador from
Paris:

After the war there was a tendency to renew all that was established.
Art ... could not stay behind. Pablo Picasso and George Braque initiated
that great world-wide crusade ... The modern artistic current imposes on,
and teaches, the artist to create a 'nature' not to copy it ... 9

Indeed Egas's paintings of the mid 1920s are no longer based on his ob-
servation of nature. He moved away from the naturalistic stylizations of the early
1920s to more expressionistic renderings of the human figure. The distortions and
fragmentation of the figure and flattening of the space are related to his expo-
sure to works of Henri Matisse (1869-1954), Picasso, and other early Modernist
6Jaime Brihuega, Las vanguardias artisticas en Espana: 1909-1936, Madrid: Ediciones
ISTMO, 1981, 220.
7 A review of the issues of the German journal Die Kunst from the years 1905 to 1914 and
of the Venice Biennale catalogues from 1910 to 1914 shows that Symbolism, Art Nouveau, and
allegorical painting were still widely accepted in European art centers outside of Paris. The
works of the German, Italian, and Spanish Symbolists were among the best known.
8Raul Andrade.
9Riga, Carlos, "De Arte, " Savia (c. 1926): n.p.
 85

artists. His color, although still naturalistic is comparable to the intensity of some
of Matisse's and other Fauvists's work. Egas personally knew, or at least knew of
the work of several Modernist artists then living in Paris: Among them are Boris
Grigoriev (1886-1939), Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955), Andre Derain (1880-1954),
Picasso, Braque, Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964), Naum Gabo (1890-1977),
Antoine Pevsner (1886-1962), and Matisse.l" His interest in pattern and design,
as seen for instance in Media tarde (1925), is evident in the reduction of the hats
to ovals that relate to each other rhythmically. Egas's interest in design and
decoration is associated with the Modernists' formal interests and would recur
in his later work. On the other hand, although his compositions are far from
being Cubist, the flattening of the forms, the elimination of background space,
and the subtle fragmentation of form shows that Egas was well aware of Cubism;
but Egas's reliance on the Cubist visual fragmentation of space was based on his
interest in figural distortions for their expressive possibilities only. In some paint-
ings, such as Caravane 'Otaoalo ' (Fig. 4.5) and La siesta (Fig. 49),11 the surface
and background space were reduced to basic overlapping geometric planes. Egas
may have been aware of one version of Picasso's La sieste (1919), in the Museum
of Modern Art in New York (Fig. 50). As in the less known version of La sieste
(Fig. 51), in his La Siesta Egas reduced the background space to simplified forms.
Furthermore, in his oil painting, Egas defined the figures through a brushstroke
that recalls the crayon lines of Picasso's drawing.
Picasso's 'colosal'P style as exemplified III La siesie, of the Museum
of Modern Art, and in other works by Picasso of the early 1920s in which he
lOIbid.
llThis painting is also known as Repos.
12This term has been used by Alfred H. Barr, Jr. in Picasso: Fifty Years of his Art, New
York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1946, 106.
 86

returned to naturalistic and classicising depictions of the human figure, is seen

in Egas's Desnudo 'Sambisa '. Indeed, the enlargement and deformation of forms
seen in Desnudo 'Sambisa' reveals Egas's familiarity with Picasso's work, perhaps
Mother and Child on a Beach (Fig. 52). According to Raul Andrade, Egas met
Picasso when he was in Paris;13 but, even had Egas not met Picasso personally
he could have been familiar with Picasso's early 1920s work through Picasso's
1924 exhibition held in the Paul Rosenberg Gallery in Paris.l" Egas must have
been particularly aware of works such as Deux femmes courant sur la plage (1922)
(Fig. 53) in which the figures, though still classicized and sculptural, were enlarged
to exaggerated proportions. The enlarged limbs, the small heads, and the small
and firm breasts can be compared to those of the figure in Desnudo 'Sambisa '.
The contorted but sinuous pose and the compression of the large female figure
into a small rectangular space in Desnudo 'Sambisa' also shares an affinity with
Picasso's Deux Baiqneurs (Fig. 54) and Nu assis s'essuyant les pieds (Figs. 55).
By using Picasso as his model, Egas gave his Indian figure a solidity that his early
1920s works lacked.
Egas's encounter with Modernist art upon his arrival in Paris in 1923
provided him with a pictorial means to express in a synthetic and powerful way his
perception of Indians. His attitude towards them was now based on an awareness
of their intrinsic cultural values as well as of the injustices of their social situation
in the Ecuadorian society. Yet, another factor that contributed to the change
in his way of expression is found in his contact with Latin American artists and
intellectuals in Paris who shared his stylistic and thematic interests.
13Raul Andrade.
l4Barr, 278.
 87

4-1.2 Contact with Latin American Artists and Intellectuals in Paris

Upon his arrival in Paris Egas came in contact with Latin American
artists and intellectuals whose art was also informed by their countries local
culture. Among the most important Latin American artists who were in Paris
at the time were the Argentines Rodolfo Alcorta (1874-1967)', Pablo Curatella
Manes (1891-1962), Emilio Petorruti (1892-), and Xul Solar (1888-1963); the
Uruguayan Pedro Figari (1861-1938); the Brazilians Vicente do Rego Monteiro
(1899), Anita Malfatti (1896-1964), Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973), and Victor
Brecheret (1894-1955); the Colombian Andres de Santa Maria (1860-1945); and
the Ecuadorian Manuel Rendon (1894-c. 1980).
Egas must have certainly been aware of the work of Figari who had
numerous exhibitions in Paris from 1923 on and whose work also focused on his
country's local culture. IS Furthermore, Egas most closely shared the interest of
the Brazilians' Tarsila, do Rego Monteiro, and Brecheret in their countries' local
culture which they held within the context of the Modernist tradition. Tarsila was
in Paris between 1920 and 1923. She studied with Fernand Leger and frequented
the studios of Andre Lhote and Albert Gleizes. Egas may have known Tarsila's
work through Gleizes, whom he most possibly met during the exhibition at the
Musee Galliera. Gleizes was one of the committee members for the painting
exhibition. In addition, in the Spring of 1923 Tarsila.'s exhibition at La Maison
de l' Amerique Latine coincided with Egas's stay in Paris; and while still in Paris
in 1923, Tarsila painted A negra (Fig. 56). Though this work is stylistically
15Figari exhibited at La Galerie Druet in the Fall of 1923 and again in 1925 (Raymond
Cogniat, "La vie artistique: Exposition Pedro Figari a la galerie Druet," Revue de l'Amerioue
Latine 6 (1923): 357-58; J. Le Boucher, "A propos d'une exposition de Pedro Figari," Revue de
l'Amerique Latine 6 (1923): 287-288; "Exposition Pedro Figari," Revue de l'Amerique Latine
10 (1925): 546; "Pedro Figari," Revue de I'Amerique Latine 10 (1925): 383).
 88

very different from Egas's Desnudo 'Sambiso.', it shows a similar interest in the
simplification and deformation of the human figure for expressive purposes; both
figures are contorted to fit the pictorial space. Both artists had post-Cubism
as their sources, in Tarsila.'s case through Leger, and in Egas's through Picasso.
Furthermore, the stylistic devices used by both artists demonstrates that they
shared slightly similar purposes. Tarsilas A negra was done after she had been to
Brazil for a few months in 1922. During this trip she felt she had 're-discovered'
her own country.l" Likewise, Egas's simplified and monumental depictions of
Indians evolved in Paris after he had been to Ecuador for two years and after his
exposure to Modernist art.
The 1920s work of the sculptor Brecheret also shows a parallel with
Egas's. Egas knew Brecheret in Paris, if not earlier, since Brecheret had been
.n Rome from 1913 to c. 1919 when Egas was also there.!" Furthermore, Egas
must have encountered Brecheret's art through several of the exhibitions in which
3recheret participated in Paris18 in addition to those in which both artists par tic-
.pated: the 1925 Salon des Independents, Salon d'Automne, and the exhibition at

:ie Musee Galliera. Although Brecheret's sculpture remained fairly naturalistic

and European in character, he showed his affinity -even if temporary- with
":.isfellow countrymen and other Latin Americans in their interest in their native
:ountries in such works as Monumento as Bandeiras (1920), a maquette for a
.ater monument for Sao Paulo, and Templo da Minha Hac« (1921).
Finally, Egas may have known do Rego Monteiro in Paris through the
~'j25 exhibitions at the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Independents. Do
;'6Roberto Pontual Diccionerio das artes plestices no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Civi-
"':za<;ao Brasileira, S. A., 1969), 512.
17Riga mentions Brecheret among a long list of Egas's friends in Paris (Riga, "De Arte").
18He participated in the 1923 exhibition at the Maison de l'Arnerique Latine, in the 1924
~3.1ond'Automne, and in the 1925 Salon des Tuileries.
 89

Rego Monteiro, like Tarsila and Brecheret, was interested in an art that expressed
Brazilian culture.l" Although very different in style to Egas's work, do Rego Mon-
teiro's painting nonetheless shares with Egas's the simplification and distortion
of figures for expressive purposes.
Egas's encounter with the Brazilian artists mentioned above, among
other Latin American is an indication of the intellectual atmosphere to which
he was exposed in Paris. The interest on the creation of an art that comprised
the native culture is evident in the work of these artists as well as in that of many
other Latin American artists, writers, musicians and intellectuals living or passing
through Paris during the early 1920s.20 It is evident therefore that Egas's interest
in re-evaluating the Ecuadorian Indian culture was not an isolated phenomenon,
but rather one which permeated the Latin American thought in the 1920s. Thus,
the work of Egas, as that of other Latin American artists who shared his for-
mal and thematic interests, must have been partly determined by the growing
nationalism and the popularity of Primitivism.

4-1.3 Theories about Nationalism in the Arts

In the philosophical arena the preoccupation with the creation of a truly

'original' national art paralleled, if not determined, the expression that that con-
cern had on the arts. Two representative examples of this concern are found
in Manuel Ugarte's essay "Le nationalisme dans la lit terature latino-arnericaine"
and David Alfaro Siqueiros's 1921 manifestoes published in Barcelona under the
title "Tres llamamientos de orientaci6n actual a los pintores y escultores de la
19With them he participated in the events of the Semana de Arte Moderna that took place
in Sao Paulo in 1922.
20 A most representative example is the case of the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos
(1887-1959) who arrived in Paris in September of 1923 for a European tour ("Les Arts", Revue
de l'Amerique Leiuie 6 (1923): 94).
 90

nueva generacion americana" .21 Ugarte believed that for Latin American litera-
ture to be truly original it had to find its inspiration in the continent's unique
local elements: its landscape, history, culture, but most importantly in the unique
spiritual character of the Latin American people. He stated:

What Latin America awaits -what one expects from it- is an art that has
resulted from its own conscience: violent, unexperienced, naive, with a Ro-
manesque taste for adventure, gifted with a certain perceptual acuteness,
full. .. of trust in its future.22

Unlike the late nineteenth century concepts of nationalism in the arts, as seen
for example in Juan Leon Mera's theories, for Ugarte the concentration in the
local landscape was not sufficient to create an original literature; the expression
of the character was most important. Although Ugarte failed to elaborate on
how this character was to be expressed in the arts, he found in the expatriation
of the most talented artists, writers, and musicians one of the main reasons why
Latin America had not yet developed a unified, continental 'national' art and
literature. 23

A more radical and indeed more progressive and influential response to

the concern for the creation of a national Latin American art is seen in Siqueiros's
manifestoes of 1921. Egas may have become aware of these three manifestoes
through Latin American and Spanish intellectuals travelling between Barcelona
and Paris between 1921 and 1923.24 Most Latin American intellectuals and artists
21Manuel Ugarte, "Le nationalisme dans la litter ature latino-americaine," Revue de
l'Armerique Latine 3 (1922): 97-101; David Alfaro Siqueiros, "Tres llamamientos de orientaci6n
actual a los pintores y escultores de la nueva generaci6n americana," in Raquel Tibol, Siqueiros:
Introductor de realidades, Mexico D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 1961,
227-229. First published in Vida Americana (Barcelona), (May 1921).
22Ugarte,99.
23Ibid., 100-101.
24The Spanish writer Guillermo de Torre constantly travelled between Barcelona and Paris.
He was married to the Argentine artist Nora Borges and knew most of the Latin American
artists and writers living in Barcelona and Paris during the 1910s and 1920s (Brihuega, 238).
 91

living in Paris must have become aware of Siqueiros's manifestoes soon after
its publication. But even if Egas had not been aware of Siqueiros's manifesto,
his work of the 1920s is part of a Latin American-wide development towards
nationalim in the arts of which Siqueiros's thought and art were part of.
Like Ugarte, Siqueiros condemned the lack of originality in Latin Amer-
ican art and the absence of the expression of the Latin American character. He
stated: "Our labour is mostly extemporaneous ... It develops incoherently with-
out producing ... anything everlasting that would respond to the vigor of our great
racial faculties.,,25 Without ignoring the developments of avant-garde European
art, Siqueiros believed that the Latin American artists would be able to create
an original art by looking at their own roots for formal and thematic inspira-
tion. He believed that as the Europeans had given a new and fresh direction
to their arts by using some of the formal solutions of Primitive art, the Amer-
icans could "... assimilate the constructive vigor of. .. [pre-Columbian] ... works
which... [manifest] ... a clear [and] elemental knowledge of nature ... "26 Thus,
Siqueiros suggested the development of a modern Latin American art which was
not alienated from the American artistic and cultural traditions.
Siqueiros's thought is reflected on the evolution of Egas's paintings from
the early to the mid 1920s. By 1924 Egas had moved away from what Siqueiros
called the "deplorable archeological reconstructions" 27 to representations of Indi-
ans that were in tune with the formal innovations of modern art in Europe. As
was the case in Herrari's work in Mexico, Egas's early 1920s works were strongly
influenced by Spanish Modernismo which Siqueiros repudiated as part of "all that
25Siqueiros, "Infiuencias perjudiciales y nuevas tendencias," 227.
26Siqueiros, "Preponderancia del espiritu constructivo sobre el espiritu decorativo ° analitico,"
229.
27Ibid.
 92

marketable [and] dangerously insinuating Art Nouveau ... ,,28 By the mid 1920s,
however, Egas had become aware of Cezanne, Picasso, Braque, Matisse, and other
Modernists and had adapted the solidity and simplification of their work to his
own paintings of Indians.
Thus Egas's work of the mid 1920s falls well within the expression of
other Latin American artists whose concern was also the creation of a unique
Latin American art, focusing in their countries' local culture and using a style
inspired in Modernist techniques and style. The artists from the Andean area,
and from other countries largely populated by Indians, saw Indians under a new
light, as a social phenomenon that could no longer be overlooked. They expressed
this new view of the Indian through simple forms and bold colors.

4-1.4 Influence of Primitivism on Egas's Depictions of Indians

The widespread fascination with Primitive cultures in the western hemi-

sphere affected the way in which Americans, including Ecuadorians, perceived
the aboriginal population of their own countries. This fascination was related to
the identification of utopian Communism with the social organization of so-called
Primivitive cultures. Thus many western intellectuals and artists viewed these
cultures as paradigmatic of the primeval states lost to modern western society.
The influence of this view on Egas's work is evident, in varying degrees,
in both his early and his mid 1920s work. It is, however, especially distinctive in
the the pre-Columbian scenes of the Jij6n y Caarnafio commission, in which he
depicted the Incas as living in harmony with nature, and in some of the scenes of
contemporary Indians, such as in Fiesta indigena (Fig. 21). His 1910s and early
1920s paintings represent his discovery of the Indian and of the utopian world with
28Siquieros, "Influencias perjudiciales y nuevas tendencias," 227.
 93

which he identified them. Thus, his representations of Indians are still idealized
and, to a certain extent, still linked to the Costumbristas' Romantic view of them.
His European point of view is also detectable in his use of a naturalistic form of
representation.
A shift away from this idealistic view of Indians is already detected in
the paintings of the mid 1920s, such as Insidiense or Race indienne in which the
Indian character is summarized. Egas no longer idealized the Indians; instead
he deformed the figure and exaggerated their features. By choosing a way of
expression that was bold, simple, but monumental he synthesized in his paintings
not only the Indians' way of life but also their most essential character. By this
time Egas's 'Primitivism' paralleled that of some European artists' whose stylistic
devices were themselves identified with Primitive forms of expression. Egas's
Primitivism paralleled Gauguin's more than Picasso's or Braque's not only in the
actual depiction of Indian life but also in his use of a 'primitivizing' technique/"
which included the use of bold colors, fiat planes, and strong gestural line. Unlike
Picasso and Braque, who Egas so much admired for having initiated the return to
the most fundamental elements of art30 Egas did not resort to the formal solutions
of Primitive art.
That Egas's works were perceived as Primitivistic can be concluded from
some of the commentaries about his art given by the French press. These com-
rnentaries varied form the simple recognition of the use of Indians as an original
subject matter to others in which Egas was seen as the creator of a new type of
oeauty. In reference to the Galerie Carmine exhibition, the critic for the Revue
du Bureau de Propagande de l'Association Paris-Amerique Latin found that
29Meaning with it the return to the fundamental elements of painting (Robert Goldwater,
Primitivism in Modern Art, rev. ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 1967), 78-80).
30See Riga in page 84, in Chapter 4 of this work.
 94

Egas's work was important at least for the originality of the subject matter. He
said: "On peut aimer ou ne pas aimer la peinture de M. Camilo Egas, mais il faut
lui etre reconnaissant parce qu' 'i1 a peint des Indiens,."31 Others found that his
work had already renewed the values of the Indians: "... Dans ces... toils, simples
solides et d'une belle couleur, l'artiste a su evoquer avec puissance, ... , l'antique
noblesse et la beaute meconnue d'une des plus vieilles races du monde: les Indiens
de l' Amerique ... ,,32Others, however, expressed their own racial biases by stating
that through Egas's representations of Indians: "Nous decouvrons tout une race
d'une humanit e presque animale ... ,,33And some went as far as to say: "Dans des

arabesques de grand style, sous une couleur mate et brillante que revere un pein-
tre, on y decouvre une faune humaine d'une horrible beaute."34 Through this last
statement the French taste of the time can be perceived. Unlike the Modernist
artists who truly appreciated the beauty of Primitive art, the general public not
only perceived Latin America as 'primitive', 'savage', and exotic. Thus, man-
taining a romantic attitude, they perceived its inhabitants as embodied with a
beauty which was both 'horrible' and appealing. Egas's paintings were identified
with this type of 'primitive' beauty. They had an impact both in Paris and III

Ecuador for they were no longer stylized and 'pretty' depictions of Indians.
31"Exposition du peintre equatorien Camilo Egas [c. 1925]," Revue du Bureau de Propagande
de l'Association Paris-Amerique Latin, Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York City.
32"L'exposition, dans une galerie de la rive gauche ... [c. 1925]," Claire Egas Richards Papers,
New York.
33"Nous decouvrons ... [September 30, 1925]," Petit Journal, Claire Egas Richards Papers,
New York City.
34Breaj, "La Galerie Carmine ... [October 31, 1925]," Action Freiiceise, Claire Egas Richards
Papers, New York.
 95

4-2 The Ecuadorian Years: 1925-1927

In December of 1925 Egas returned to Ecuador. He arrived with new

ideas for the arts in his country. Until he left for New York at the end of 1927,
he served as artistic leader in Ecuador in a way that had never been done be-
fore. His initial activities included teaching art at Quito's teacher's college and
directing the Teatro Nacional Sucre in QuitO.35 He also planned the foundation
of a school of decorative arts which was to guide the artistic education of Indian
children. Although this project was originally accepted by the current Minister
of Education, it was rejected by the next one who found Egas's idea to be too
socialist in its orientation.i'" Egas's most succesful and important contributions
to Ecuador's artistic development in the 1920s was his establishment of an art
gallery, the Galena Egas, and of an art magazine, Helice, both of which were the
first of their kind in Ecuador. Though short-lived they gave impulse to Ecuador's
stagnant artistic atmosphere.
The Galeria Egas opened III the Summer of 1926. Its first exhibition
comprised seventy-five drawings by Egas, Guillermo Latorre (1890's-1986), Carlos
Andrade (Kanela) (1899), Sergio Guarderas (1902), Jorge Diez, Jose Espin, and
Ortiz.37
The Galeria Egas exhibition had an unconventional character. The
artists who participated were young and unknown and their only claim to fame
had been through their collaboration in the controversial magazine Caricatura
(1918-1924).38 Indeed all the artists who exhibited in the Caleria Egas separated

35Museo del Banco Central, Camilo Egas, 1980, n.p.

36Raul Andrade.
37Although these group of artists were part of the progressive intellectual movement in Ecua-
dor of the 1920s, very little is known about them; their importance was soon overshadowed
with the emergence of a more coherent movement, Indigenismo, in the 1930s.
38Kanela, Latorre, Guarderas and Enrique Teran had been members of Caricatura. Kanela
 96

themselves from the official art circles.P" In addition, this first exhibition cata-
logue essay was written by Isaac Barrera.t" one of the main theoreticians of the
earlier Modernista movement in Ecuador during the 1910s which at that time
was viewed as highly unconventional. Thus, although by the mid 1920s Mod-
ernismo in the fine arts had become decorative and had come to be accepted
by the conventional middle and upper classes, the presence of Barrera's name
in the catalogue nonetheless identified the exhibition with controversial progres-
sive ideas. Although the group exhibiting in the Galena Egas in 1926 had very
different goals from those of the Modernistas in the 1910s, both groups shared
in their rejection of the academy and the conventional bourgeoisie whose taste
favored salon type, academic portraits and landscapes like those by the painter
Juan Leon Mera Iturralde.t! Furthermore, the exhibition at the Caleria Egas was
completely dedicated to the medium of drawing, in itself a challenge to the con-
servative Ecuadorian art circles which still considered drawing a minor art. The
works' subject matter also defied the conventional taste of official circles. For in-
stance, Egas showed, among other works, drawings of nude women, including his
Desnudo (1924 and Desnudo: mujer india (1925) (Fig. 57) and 58).42 Desnudo:
mujer india was probably done after his Indian model (Fig. 59).43 Latorre and
Kanela showed their caricatures of political figures.
and Latorre collaborated in it with their caricatures of political figures.
39Jaime Andrade.
40"La galeria 'Egas' [c. 1926]," Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York City.
41A review of newspapers of the time reveals a virtual disregard for the visual arts. The little
attention given to it focused mainly on conventional academic art (exhibitions of the painter
Juan Leon Mera were the most often reviewed (see "El artist a J. 1. Mera inicia su exposicion
de pintura," El Telegxeio ( Guayaquil) (June 14, 1927): 3; "La exp osicion del artista J. L. Mera
1.," El Telegreio (June 16, 1927): 4; "Brochazos," El Telegreio (June 22, 1927): 3.) )
421n "La galeria 'Egas' " it is mentioned that the drawings exhibited had already been shown
in Paris.
43A photograph of the model was kept by Egas. (Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York
City.
 97

One of the main aspects that distinguished this exhibition from previ-
ous ones was that most of the works displayed represented local scenes instead
of academic portraits or allegorical scenes. Latorre exhibited drawings of Indi-
ans in which he stressed their racial characteristicsr'" Guarderas exhibited local
landscapes which showed cubist distortions. One critic stated that the exhibition
could "truly be called one of a national art" .45
During the fall of the same year Egas had two individual shows, one in his
gallery in Quito and another in Guayaquil. According to press reviews Egas exhib-
ited in Quito three types of paintings: In the first type Egas developed, "... the
aboriginal model with chromatic exaltation and simplicity in the morphologic
description"; in the second, "... the nude with diaphaneity, and [yet]... , with
compositions of expressive realism"; and in the third, "... the aboriginal model
with sober chromatic fluency and volumetric weight "46 In addition, Egas also
exhibited landscapes through which he attempted to " reveal the monastic, des-
olate, and languid city [Quito] in its most ... typical profile.,,47 The article's writer
concluded that Egas's exhibition "constituted an exuberant colouristic success." 48
Although the works Egas exhibited in his individual exhibition in Quito
were consistently of local subject matter, not all the works exhibited were repre-
sentations of Indians. However, those that were made a powerfull impact on the
viewers. Although Egas seems hardly political by today's standards, many writers
of the time read in his work a political intent. In reference to the exhibition held
in Guayaquil, the critic for that city's daily, El Telegieio, stated that among the
44"La galeria 'Egas' ".
45"La Galeria 'Egas' revista a vuelo de pajaro [c. 1926]," Claire Egas Richards Papers, New
York City.
46"La exposicion artistica del maestro Egas [c. 1926J," El Telegreio [sic], Claire Egas Richards
Papers, New York City.
47Ibid.
48Ibid.
 98

"... violent [nudes of] surprising effect... [Egas expressed] ... the torture of the
Indian race who... raises its hands ... asking for redernption.v'" Phrases such
as: "A race that [lives] its past and its present; its past of slavery and its present
of oblivion" or "[who] cries its abominable desolation", suggest that the critics
were reading in Egas's paintings an element of denunciation which seems far less
apparent today; yet, at the time his work seemed new and socially threatening.
Commenting on the stylistic change that his works from 1922 to the mid 1920s
evidenced, one critic said: "Camilo Egas has passed from imitative to intuitive
art ... The criollo painter renounces scrupulous and dynamic copying of the au-
tochthonous race to transform himself into the diviner of its zoologic morphology,
and even, into the conqueror of its spirit, of that soul made of clay ... [As a result],
his artistic zoology is also a pathetic psychology." 50 At the time, Egas was seen
as a sort of redeemer of Indians. Today, however, when we compare his work to
the highly political Indigenismo of the 1930s and 1940s, it seems tame and not
particularly political in intent. Yet, what Egas was expressing in his mid 1920s
work was a desire to re-evaluate the Indian culture. His intent was to expose his
character: his sadness, humble condition, and the humiliation that four hundred
years of exploitation had imprinted on his nature. Egas's expression responded
to his concern for the condition of the Indian but not yet to a specific desire to
denounce this condition as did the Indigenistas of the 1930s and 1940s.
On the other hand, his work was also seen by the critics of the time as
intrinsically modern. The author of "La exposici6n artistica del maestro Egas"
praised Egas's formal talent: "[Egas] is an essentially plastic painter ... He pos-
49 "La solemne inauguraci6n de la exposici6n Egas [c. 1926)," El Telegt eio [sicJ, Claire Egas
Richards Papers, New York City.
50 "Galeria Camilo Egas: La emocion en el arte -Quito inrnortal-e- las origin ales tendencias
del maestro, un nuevo y valioso triunfo [... ) a otros muchos: Camilo Egas, el pintor [sic) de la
raza india [1926]," El Telegreio, Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York City.
 99

sesses, above all, a sense of corporeality, of volume, of space with a triple and
disconcerting mastery." His combination of the sobriety of modernist art with a
subject matter that was intrinsically Ecuadorian led the current critics to consider
him the "initiator of modern painting in Ecuador" .51
The magazine Helice founded by Egas in 1926 was the first Ecuadorian
magazine exclusively dedicated to art.52 Egas's purpose in this magazine was to
give exposure to the young Ecuadorian painters, draftsmen, and caricaturists, in
addition to reproducing contemporary European art.53 Some of the artists asso-
ciated with Galeria Egas, particularly Kanela and Latorre, were also associated
with Helice. As former contributors with Enrique Teran to Caricatura, they were
as critical of the artistic as of the political establishment.v' Jorge Reyes, Gonzalo
Escudero, and Raul Andrade collaborated in its literary section, in which Ecuado-
rian and European poetry and prose was published. 55 After its first number came
out the author of "Revista de Arte" praised the magazine for having taken art out
of the studios to "stir the atmosphere." 56 Helice was scheduled to be published
every two weeks; however, after three or four issues it ceased publication " and
Egas, left Ecuador for New York where he remained for the next thirty years.
The development of Egas's work from the narrative, decorative work of
the early 1920s to the iconic and generalized depiction of Indians in the mid

51 "Ha salido ala luz ... [c. 1926]," Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York City.
52 "Revista de Arte [1926]''' Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York City. Significantly the
~itle he gave to his magazine appeared in two 1920s avant-garde Spanish publications. In 1923
Guillermo de Torre published a book of poems under the title Helices (Madrid: Mundo Latino,
~923). Later in 1929-30 the magazine Helix was published in Villafranca del Penedes (Brihuega,
572,513).
53Ibid. and Jaime Andrade.
54 Because of its political activism Caricatura was closed by the government several times.
55Jaime Andrade.
56"Revista de Arte [c. 1926]".
57Jaime Andrade.
 100

1920s marks a major step in his artistic development. This change in style and
content corresponded first to Egas's contact with Modernist art in Paris and
second to his contact with Latin American artists whose ideas paralleled his in
their basic concern for the creation of an art that was rooted in themes from
their native countries. Furthermore, this change was possibly influenced, or it
at least found an affinity with, the ideas about 'national' art in Latin America
as presented at the time by Manuel Ugarte and David Alfaro Siqueiros, among
others. Consequently, Egas's work has to be seen in the context of a movement
towards nationalism that affected all of Latin America, although the results varied
greatly from country to country. Egas, as other artists from the Andean area and
other areas of Latin America strongly populated by Indians, expressed his interest
in local culture by choosing to depict in his work a specific aspect of his country's
local culture: the Indian. By using the simplicity and sobriety of Modernist art
he was able to express in a stronger way than before the Indian's nature. By
simplifying, generalizing the Indian figure Egas created a figural type through
which a more complete representation of the Indian world could be expressed.
This development on his work was contemporary with the rise of mural painting
in Mexico. He shared, particularly with Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco, a
rejection of folkloric themes in favor of representations in which the larger reality
of their country and its inhabitants was synthesized.
 CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

Egas's work of the 1910s and 1920s indicates that the growing social
consciousness and the development of archeology in the 1910s were the two most
important determinants in his choice of Indians as subject matter of his work.
The social consciousness of the 1910s led Egas to become interested in the most
neglected member of the Ecuadorian society. The development of archeology
further instigated an interest in the culture and life of the country's indigenous
people. The fourteen paintings done for .Iijon y Caamaiio in 1922/23 summarize
the impact archeology had in his work; they synthesize his interest in past and
present Indian cultures. Through the paintings of this commission Egas's intent
seems to have been to present a sequential history of Indian culture which began
with the harmonious pre-Columbian past and concluded with the contemporary
Indians. Past and present Indian life are brought together through the discovery
of America, represented in the painting Alegoria al descubrimiento de America
suggesting the prevalence of past Indian values in the present culture.
The sequential narrative approach used for the depiction of the history
of the Indian culture seen in the Jijon y Caamafio commission was modified in the
mid 1920s. By this time the Indian world was synthesized in single works which
portrayed simple but monumental representations of the Indian figure. Egas

101
 102

moved away from highly idealized representations of Indians, in which European

values were superimposed to Indian ones. He began to exaggerate the Indian
features and gestures, to enlarge the figure to monumental dimensions, and to
use bold colors to portray more directly the Indian world view. Although these
last paintings express a greater understanding of the Indian reality and thus are
truer depictions of it than the paintings of the Jij6n y Caamafio commission, they
do not necessarily express an interest in making of them a political statement. The
paintings of the Jij6n y Caamafio commission expressed a desire to re-evaluate
the Indian culture; the mid 1920s works already showed an understanding of that
Indian culture.
By the 1930s Egas's work evolved into a more radical expression of the
subject of Indians. He began to express an increasing political concern. In addi-
tion, he no longer concentrated solely on Indians as subject matter; he now began
to include workers. Expressive devices, such as exaggerated gestures, sketchy line
and figural distortions continued to be used in the 1930s works with a desire to
express more directly the actual exploitation of the Indian and the worker. Thus,
by the 1930s his work became truly Indigenista: It expressed a desire to denounce
the unfair social situation of the Indian.
The development of Egas's work towards Indigenismo occurred during
his years in New York. In Ecuador itself, Indigenismo and other Social Realist
schools did not emerge until the 1930s after Egas's departure. Even though Egas's
work of the 1920s clearly served as a transition between the Romantic interest
in Indians for their exotic qualitites and the Indigenistas interest in denouncing
the situation of the Indian, this phase cannot be considered to have been a di-
rect influence in those artistic developments of the 1930s in Ecuador. His work
simply manifests a necessary moment in the evolution from Indianismo towards
 103

Indigenismo. However, his artistic activity in the short period he remained in

Ecuador between 1925 and 1927 must have been an important incentive to young
artists and writers. His 1926 exhibition in Guayaquil must have made a strong
impact on some of the members of the Social Realist literary movement that
emerged in that city in 1930, the 'Grupo de Guayaquil'. Likewise, since the artis-
tic community in Quito was so small, the artists and writers who would later
emerge as Indigenistas may well have been aware of Egas's activity.
Yet, like the Ecuadorian Indigenistas, Egas's work of the 1930s was stylis-
tically and ideologically informed by the developments of the Mexican Muralists.
Like them, in the 1930s he began to paint in a monumental scale, though still
using easel painting, and continued to expresss in a synthetic way the struggle
of the lower classes, particularly of the Indian. In his mural Ecuadorian Festi-
val: Mixed Pagan and Christian Ceremonies (1932), in the New School for Social
Research, New York, he continued to expressed his interest in Indian customs
but know with a touch of social criticism towards the prevalence of the Spanish
population control over Indians.
Thus Egas's work of the 1920s represents a stage in the development
of the representation of Indians in Ecuadorian art in particular and in Latin
American art in general. His expression responded to the continuing search for
national identity. In countries with large Indian populations the consolidation of
nationalism included the integration of marginal groups, of which Indians were
an important part, into the dominant society. Egas's use of Indians as subject
matter is thus an example of one artist's response to the developing nationalism
in Indian populated countries. In Ecuador, that response was consolidated in the
1930s with the emergence of Indigenismo and other Social Realist movements in
art and literature.
 FIGURES

104

----~ -----------------
 105

Figure 1 Jose Joaquin Pinto, Cabestrillo, 1889, watercolor, 26 x 20 ern. Quito, Museo de la
Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana "Benjamin Carrion". From: Museo del Banco Central, Joaquin
Pinto, Fig. 206.
 106

~~.~;c",.,~,
~.-~
•

Figure 2 Pinto, Orejas de palo, 1904, oil on canvas, 30 x 21 ern. Quito, Museo Municipal
"Alberto Mena Caamafio". From: Museo del Banco Central, Joaquin Pinto, Fig. 213.

Figure 3 Pinto, Barredor, 1900, pencil on paper, 19 x 11 em. Quito, Museo del Banco Central
del Ecuador. From: Museo del Banco Central, Joaquin Pinto, Fig. 236.
 107

Figure 4 Pinto, Indio de Chinchamayo 'Peru', 1900, pencil on paper, 18 x 18 ern. Quito, Museo
del Banco Central del Ecuador. From: Museo del Banco Central, Joaquin Pinto, Fig. 234.
 108

~\\. . ,. ,.,.~-
, ...;-:;;',4,.""~'

.....•
~- .,' ,"

Figure 5 Pinto, Incas de Chagllas, c. 1900, pencil on paper, 19 x 10 ern. Quito, Museo del
3anco Central del Ecuador. From: Museo del Banco Central, Joaquin Pinto, Fig. 228.

Figure 6 Pinto, Nay6n vendedor de Chaguarqueros, 1906, pencil on paper, 19 x 10 ern. Quito,
Museo del Banco Central del Ecuador. From: Museo del Banco Central, Joaquin Pinto, Fig. 239 .

. -----~.---------------------------~
 109

Figure 7 Pinto, Longo de Napa, 'Arcliidon a', c. 1900, pencil on paper, 19 x 10 ern. Quito,
Museo del Banco Central del Ecuador. From: Museo del Banco Central, Joaquin Pinto, Fig. 248.

Figure 8 Pinto, Indio Zambiza (Longo), c. 1890, pencil on paper, 18 x 8 ern. Quito, Museo
del Banco Central del Ecuador. From: Museo del Banco Central, Joaquin Pinto, Fig. 247.
 110

Figure 9 Ignacio Zuluaga, EI torero del corciio, early 20th C., oil on canvas, unknown dimen-
sions. Unknown present location. From: Camille Mauclair, 8.
 111

Figure 10 Saturnino Herran, EI Jarabe, 1913, oil on canvas, 161 x 135 cm. From: Ramirez,
Fig. 3.
 112

Figure 11 Camilo Egas, Nino indio, n.d., oil on canvas, 71 x 57 cm. Quito, Museo del Banco
Central del Ecuador.
 _ •••• ,"""1;

..•. ..:...0

Figure 12 Egas, Reiraio de india, n.d., oil on canvas, 40 x 32 ern. Quito, Museo del Banco
Central del Ecuador.
 114

Figure 13 Juan Agustin Guerrero, Tejedor de tocuyos, 19th C., watercolor, Unknown dimen-
sions. Quito, Fundacion Hallo para las investigaciones y las artes. From: Hallo, 52.
 115

Figure 14 View of Jacinto Jijon y Caamafio's 'Biblioteca Americanista' with paintings by

Camilo Egas on the second floor. Quito: Museo del Banco Central del Ecuador. From: Vargas,
Jacinto Jijon y Caamaiio, 30.
 116

Figure 15 Egas, Ritual, 1922, oil on canvas, 97 x 204 em. Quito, Museo del Banco Central
del Ecuador.

Figure 16 Egas, Baile, n.d., oil on canvas, 98 x 162 em. Quito, Museo del Banco Central del
Ecuador.
 117

Figure 17 Egas, EI »elorio, 1922, oil on canvas, 94 x 164 cm. Quito, Museo del Banco Central
del Ecuador.

~ :-;.:;r-11
t,l.

Figure 18 Egas, Untitled, 1922, oil on canvas, 99 x 167 cm. Quito, Museo del Banco Central
del Ecuador.
 118

Figure 19 Egas, Camino al mercado, 1922, oil on canvas, 97 x 167 cm. Quito, Museo del
Banco Central del Ecuador.

Figure 20 Egas, Procesion, 1922, oil on canvas, 97 x 270.5 cm. Quito, Museo del Banco
Central del Ecuador.
 119

Figure 21 Egas, Fiesta indigena, 1922, oil on canvas, 97 x 165 em. Quito, Museo del Banco
Central del Ecuador.

Figure 22 Egas, Los yumbos, n.d., oil on canvas, 99 x 368 cm. Quito, Museo del Banco Central
del Ecuador.
 120

Figure 23 Egas, Cosecha de maiz, 1922, oil on canvas, 98 x 268 cm. Quito, Museo del Banco
Central del Ecuador.

Figure 24 Egas, Indigenas can vasijas, 1922, oil on canvas, 97 x 164.5 ern. Quito, Museo del
Banco Central del Ecuador.
 121

Figure 25 Egas, Ofrenda, 1922, oil on canvas, 98 x 222 cm. Quito, Museo del Banco Central
del Ecuador.

Figure 26 Egas, Danza ceremonial, n.d., oil on canvas, 97 x 167 cm. Quito, Museo del Banco
Central del Ecuador.
 122

Figure 27 Egas, Siembra, 1923, oil on canvas, 97 x 164 cm. Quito, Museo del Banco Central
del Ecuador.
 123

Figure 28 Photograph of Indians from Otavalo in a procession. From: Blomberg, 168.

 124

gal

A~'lL
.""""'-'---"""". (.::rViLnlbe
_ :;J1.l{~n.\Iun/;a In

'--...
\
;"P' "
G 0'~
/.-._._. rn s n;-
/

\
v~t;C-="-'

Figure 29 Detail of Map of the Province of Pichincha. From: Bustamante, 135,

Figure 30 Photograph of Indians carrying goods to the market. From: Buitr6n, 65.
 126

m'''34-\'~i
m'141 I~i)~

.Iq(l~

~''l1' "q

CJ ,,,,-""

Figure 31 Map of Quito showing the city's urban growth. From: Gomez E., 58.

Figure 32 Map of Quito showing the city's neighbourhoods. From: Gomez E., 88.
Figure 33 Indian woman wearing anaco. From: Parsons, Plate 16.
 128

Figure 34 Felipe Cuarnan Poma de Ayala, El quinceavo capitan Mallco Mullo: Poderoso jefe
de Concha Colorada, sixteenth century. From: Poma de Ayala, 122.
 129

Figure 35 Inca vases. Fouteenth century. From: Jijon y Caamafio and Larrea, Fig. 10.
 130

Figure 36 Inca vase. Fouteenth century. From; Jijon y Caarnafio and Larrea, Fig. 40.
 131

AGoSTQ

--.::::::----:-- --

Figure 37 Felipe Guarnan Poma de Ayala, Agosto Chacra- Yapuy Quilla, sixteenth century,
From: Poma de Ayala, 175,
 132

Figure 38 Photograph of Indians sowing the land. From: Parsons, Plate 6.

 133

Figure 39 Egas, Race indienne, c. 1924, c. oil on canvas, unknown dimensions. Unknown
present location. From: Photograph Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York City.

Figure 40 Egas, Gregorio y Carmela, c. 1922-1923, oil on canvas, 0.748 x 1.85 ern. C;.::~=
Museo del Banco Central del Ecuador.
 134

Figure 41 Egas, Retraio de India, 1924, c. pencil on paper, unknown dimensions. Proce-
dence: Paris, Revue du Bureau de Propagande de l'Association Paris-Amerique Latin. Unknown
present location. From: Zaldumbide and Garcia Calderon in Claire Egas Richards Papers, New
York City,
Figure 42 Egas, Retraio de Guillermo Latorre, 1922, graphite drawing, 0.18 x 0.19 ern. Quito,
Collection of Guillermo Latorre.
 136

Figure 43 Egas, Romeros, 1925, oil on canvas, unknown dimensions. Unknown present loca-
tion. Procedence: Gonzalo Zaldumbide Collection. From: "Camilo Egas: Uno de los primeros
pintores indigenistas the America," 23.
 137'

Figure 44 Egas, Media tarde, 1925, oil on canvas, unknown dimensions. Unknown present
location. Procedence: Gonzalo Zaldumbide Collection. From: "Camilo Egas: Uno de los
primeros pintores indigenistas the America," 23.
 138

Figure 45 Egas, Caravane 'Otava/o', 1925, c. oil on canvas, unknown dimensions. Unknown
present location. From: Photograph in Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York.
Figure 46 Egas, Oiabalo, Sambisa, Coiacachi, 1924, c. oil on canvas, unknown dimensions.
Unknown present location. From: Photograph in Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York.
 140

Figure 47 Egas, Desnudo 'Zambiza " c. 1924, c. charcoal on paper, unknown dimensions.
Unknown present location. From: Crespo 0., 73.
 I-H

Figure 48 Egas, Insidieuse, 1925, c. oil on canvas, unknown dimensions. Unknown present
location. From: Photograph in Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York.
 142

Figure 49 Egas, La siesta, 1925, oil on canvas, unknown dimensions. Unknown present
location. Procedence: Gonzalo Zaldumbide Collection. From: "Camilo Egas: Uno de los
primeros pintores indigenistas the America," 23.

Figure 50 Pablo Picasso, La siesie or Sleeping Peasants, 1919, colored ink, 31 x 48

Museum of Modern Art, New York City. From: Barr, 106.
 143

Figure 51 Pablo Picasso, La sieste, 1919, crayon, 22.5 x 30.5 ern. Unknown present location.
From Zervos, vol. 3, Plate 370.
 144

Figure 52 Pablo Picasso, Mother and Child on a Beach, 1921, oil on canvas, 75 x 57 in. New
York, J. K. Thannhauser Collection. From: Fort Worth Art Center and Dallas Museum of Fine
Arts, 31.

--------------~ - --- -- ~-- ----~--

 145

'~"!i
--.:.....
', i.-~
' ,.: 1<'-:.
.
:~,;
..

Figure 53 Pablo Picasso, Deux femmes courant sur la plage, 1921, tempera on panel, 32.5 x
42.5 cm. Unknown present location. From: Jaffe, 25.
 146

Figure 54 Pablo Picasso, Deux Baigneurs, 1921, oil on wood, unknown dimensions. Unknown
present location. From: Zervos, vol. 4, Plate 95.
 147

Figure 55 Pablo Picasso, Nu ass is s'essuyant les pieds, 1921, pastel, 65 x 50 ern. Unknown
present location. From: Zervos, vol. 4, Plate 125.
 148

Figure 56 Tarsila do Amaral, A negra, 1923, oil on canvas, unknown dimensions. Sao Paulo,
Museu de Arte Contemporanea de Universidade de Sao Paulo. From: Pontual, 512.

---- ~-~~
-'~---~~~'--~-'~=-,=~---.,....-------
 149

Figure 57 Egas, Desnudo: mujer madura, 1924, graphite drawing, 44 x 54 ern. Quito,
Collection of Guillermo Latorre.

Figure 58 Egas, Desnudo: mujer india, 1924, graphite drawing, 9.5 x 16 cm. Quito, Collection
of Guillermo Latorre.
 150

Figure 59 Photograph of Camilo Egas's Indian model, Quito 1920s. From: Claire Egas
Richards Papers, New York.
 APPENDIX A

CHRONOLOGY: EGAS WITHIN ECUADOR'S CULTURAL

CONTEXT

:872 President Gabriel Garda Moreno founded in Quito the Escuela Nacional de
Bellas Artes. The Spanish sculptor Jose [sic] Gonzalez y Jimenez (c.1830s-
?) was its first director. Luis Cadena (1830-1889) and Juan Manosalvas
(1840-1906) were directors in 1872 and 1873-1876 respectively. Rafael
Salas (1828-1906) was one of the schools first teachers.

:376 The Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes closed after President Garda Moreno
was assasinated.

: S88 The painter Victor Mideros (d. c. 1962) was born in San Antonio de Ibarra.

:. 1893-95 In December 10 Camilo Egas was born in Quito.

He grew up in Quito's neighborhood of San BIas.

~390's Abraham Moscoso (d. c. 1936) was born.

~394 The painter Pedro Leon Donoso (d. 1956) was born in Ambato.

1899-1902 Egas attended elementary school at the escuela de los Hermanos

Cristianos de El Cebollar and secondary at the Instituto Nacional Mejia

151
 152

and the Seminary of the San Gabriel school.

1904 In May 24 the new Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes was founded through
the iniciative of the Minister of Education, Luis A. Martinez. Its first
director was Pedro Traversari and its first instructors were Jose Joaquin
Pinto (1842-1906), Rafael Salas, Juan Manosalvas and Antonio Salguero
Salas (1864-1920). Salguero Salas taught at the school until 1912 using
his personal copies of Italian masterpieces as study tools.

1906 Pacifico Chiriboga, Juan Leon Mera Iturralde, Eudofilo Alvarez, Alberto
Mena Caarnafio, Jose Gabriel Navarro, and Luis Veloz were among the
first students at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes.

1907 President Eloy Alfaro invited foreign faculty to teach at the school. The
Spaniards Leon Camarero, Raul Maria Pereira, Victor Puig, and Miguel
Castells (1875-?) taught composition and painting, drawing, lithographic
drawing, and color lithography respectively. A. Dobe also taught lithog-
raphy. The Italians Giaccomo Radiconcini and Leibero Valente taught ar-
chitecture and sculpture respectively. Wenceslao Ceballos (c. 1875-1944),
who had been in Rome since 1895, taught drawing and watercolor.

c. 1908-11 Egas entered the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. Pereira and Ca-
marero were his first teachers.

c. 1909 Egas won a medal in the Concurso Nacional del Centenario de la Inde-
pendencia.

1910 The Spanish draftsman Jose Maria Roura Oxandaberro arrived in Guaya-
quil from Spain. He remained in Ecuador for the rest of his life influencing
the younger generation of caricaturists and landscape painters.

------~-----, .~.----------
 153

1911 Egas was awarded a government fellowship to study in Rome's Regia

Scuola di Belle Arti. Mideros and Nicolas Delgado (1890) were among
other students who went with Egas.

Egas won a prize at Rome's Salon Arnatori e Cultori delle Belle Arti in
the Palazzo Nazionale de Roma.

Egas married Victoria Fornari and his son Raul was born.

1912 The literary work of the Ecuadorian Modernista poets began to be pub-
lished in the literary review Letras (1912-1918).

The French painter Paul Alfred Bar was hired by the Escuela Nacional
de Bellas Artes to teach applied drawing and decoration. Later he taught
color theory and was appointed director of the school. He was pivotal
in the break with the earlier academic tradition by exposing his students
to the innovations of modern French art. He introduced Impressionism
to Ecuador. By stressing open-air painting he stimulated the student's
creative curiosity and experimental instincts. Pedro Leon and Camilo
Egas were among Bar's first students. Leon followed very closely Bar's
Impressionist style.

The Italian sculptor Luigi Casadio and the Ecuadorians Juan Leon Mera
Iturralde was also hired that year. Bar and Casadio contributed to the
freeing of the Escuela de Bellas Artes from its old conventional academism.

1913 The Directorio General de Bellas Artes was founded in Quito. The con-
struction of the Palacio de Bellas Artes was begun.

The first Exposicion Nacional de Bellas Aries was held in Quito at t ae

Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. The participants were students a:-_:'

 154

instructors of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes who rejected academic

art.

c. 19H Egas returned to Ecuador from Italy.

1914 Through competition he won the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes' paint-
ing teaching post.

His paintings began to show the influence of Bar's Impressionism in his

use of color dabs.

The second Exposici6n Nacional de Bellas Artes was held. Antonio Salgue-
ro, Eugenia de Navarro, Bar and Mera won the landscape prizes; Mideros,
Jose Yepez and Enrique Gomez Jurado the figure painting prizes; Luis
Salguero the genre painting and Roura Oxandaberro the drawing prize.

Manuel Maria Rueda, Jose Salas Salguero and Jose Abraham Moscoso
were among the students who sent works from Italy while under governe-
ment fellowships. Antonio Salgado, Luis Aulestia, Luis Veloz and Nicolas
Delgado sent works from other parts of Europe.

The North American painter Harold Putman Browne began to teach land-
scape painting at the school.

~915 The third Exposici6n Nacional de Bellas Artes was held, for the first time,
at the 'Kiosko' de la Alameda. Bar, Gomez Jurado, Leon, Humberto Mata,
Alfonso Mena, Mideros, Guillermo Mosquera, Noroiia, Mrs. Oquendo de
Echeverria, Pazrnifio, Ruiz, Moscoso, Rueda, A. Salgado, Luis Salguero,
and Yepez were among the participants.

Anfbal [sic] Egas exhibited a series oflandscape 'impressions' which, on the

words of a contemporary critic "were only color dabs" and thus "[could]
 155

not be considered paintings". He exhibited a landscape of the 'north of

Quito' and a scene of the 'Machachi mountain chain' both of which were
filled with light and bold color dabs.

In an adjacent exhibition, the students of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas

Artes showed their works.

The sculpture class was re-organized by Casadio.

~916 The government passed a law prohibiting the exportation of archeological

and artistic objects.

~917 Egas participated, with Victor Mideros and Moscoso, in the annual art
exhibition organized by the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes and held at
the 'Kiosko' de La Alameda park. Among other works Egas exhibited were
El sanjuanito and Tripiico.

The Museo de Arqueologia was founded.

The Galena de Pintura y Escultura was founded.

In August 10 the Salon Mariano Aguilera was founded. For the next twenty
five years it would be the most important artistic stimulus in Ecuador.
Mideros won the first prize; Guillermo Latorre (1890s-1986) and Enrique
Teran won the caricature prizes.

1918-1924 The magazine Caricatura was founded in Quito. Its director was
Enrique Teran and its main contributors were Latorre, Jorge Diez, Carlos
Andrade Moscoso (Kanela) (1899), Augusto Arias and Fernando Chavez.
It was illustrated with caricatures, which became the medium through
which progressive ideas and the new rebellious spirit was expressed.
 156

1920 Egas and Gomez Jurado won the Mariano Aguilera prizes at the Salon
Mariano Aguilera.

Egas received a government fellowship to study at the Real Academia de

Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid.

He exhibited at the Palacio de Crista] of El Parque de El Retiro, Madrid.

Often visited the studio of the Spanish painter Hermenegildo Anglada

Camaraza (1872-1959).

Married Susana Ribera.

1922 Returned to Ecuador.

Pio Jaramillo Alvarado published his famous study El Indio ecuatoriano:

couiribucion al estudio de la sociologia indoamericana.

1922-1923 Egas painted fourteen oil paintings to decorate the upper hall of Jac-
into .Iijon y Caamaiio's library. These paintings represent pre-Columbian
and contemporary Indian rituals.

1923 In January Egas moved to Paris. Lived at rue Racine and his studio was
located at La Place de la Republique.

Studied at the Academie Colarrosie.

1924 (March 15-April15) Egas participated in the Exposition d'Art Americain-

Latin at the Musee Galliera (Organized by La Maison de l' Amerique La-
tine and l'Academic Internationale des Beaux Arts). Besides exhibiting
three of his paintings and some drawings, he exhibited his collection of
Ecuadorian and Colombian handicrafts including ponchos, rebozos, belts.
embroidered shirts, Indian hats, Indian necklaces, an Inca copper sun. Inca
 157

pottery, and musical instruments (pan flutes, rondadores, and drums). In

addition, Timoleon Flores, the Council of Ecuador in France, exhibited his
collection of Ecuadorian tapestries and feather headresses from Ecuador's
eastern lowlands.

The first Salon de Arte Moderno was founded in Quito.

The Centro Nacional de Bellas Artes was founded; it functioned until 1927.
Mideros was its first director; Moscoso and Ciro Pazmifio collaborated with
him.

Egas exhibited at Le Salon des Independents where, among other works,

he showed Raza india.

At Le Salon D'Automme exhibited Idole Equaieur and Repos.

Exhibited at the Gallerie Carmine where he showed, among other works,

Caravane 'Otaualo '.

Was admitted to the Societe des Artistes Isidepen danis, Paris.

The Ecuadorian Government appointed him Commissioner for the Ecuado-

rian exhibit of the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs, Paris.
However in the end no American country, including the United States,
participated.

Married the North American dancer Margaret Gibons.

In c. November the second Salon de Arte Moderno took place. Sergio

Guarderas (1901), Delgado, Matilde Sanchez, Maria Josefina Ponce, Laura
Almeida Borja, Magdalena Riofrio de Leon, Wilhelmina Coronel, Marfa
Luisa Fierro, Ana Befort, Aspiazu, Teran, Ortiz, Espin, Estrella, Mateus,
 158

Tufiiio, Aymacafia, Morales were among the participants. Leon exhibited

a painting entitled La casa de la Nicolasa in which Indians were portrayed.

In December Egas returned to Ecuador and began to teach painting at the

Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes.

1926 Egas taught at Quito's teachers' college.

He was appointed artistic director of Quito's Teatro Nacional Sucre.

Egas founded the magazine Helice. Among his collaborators were the
artists Carlos Andrade (Kanela), Sergio Guarderas and Guillermo Latorre
and the writers Raul Andrade and Enrique Teran. It was the first mag-
azine of modern art published in Ecuador. It dealt with national and
international avant-garde art. For the first time, it exposed the Ecuado-
rian public to reproductions of European modern art. It criticized the
artistic apathy and passiveness of the Ecuadorian society.

In the Summer, Egas founded the Galeria Egas in Quito. It became the
only art center where artists alienated from the official art centers could
exhibit. In the opening show seventy-five drawings by Egas, Kanela, La-
torre, Diez, Guarderas, Ortiz, and Espin were shown.

Later that Summer Egas had an individual exhibition in his gallery.

In October the Municipality of Guayaquil invited him to exhibit there.

The Exposicioti Egas was held in the city's Radio Club as part of the
festivities in honor of Guayaquil's Independence day.
 159

1927 Left Ecuador to settle permanently in New York where he lived on Four-
teenth Street in Greenwich Village.

1929 Married Virginia Eufild.

1931 Met Jose Clemente Orozco at The New School for Social Research in New
York where Orozco was painting a mural.

In October had his first individual exhibition in the United States, entitled
Paintings of Indians of Ecuador by Camilo Egas, which took place at The
New School for Social Research. Exhibited fourteen oil paintings and four
watercolors.

1932 Egas began to teach in the New School for Social Research in New York;
he was one of the first teachers of the newly founded art workshops. He
taught drawing, oil painting, mural painting and fresco until his death in
1962.

Participated in a group exhibition organized by J. B. Newmann at the New

School for Social Research. The exhibition's theme was 'Social Tendencies
in Modern Art'.

Participated in a group exhibition at the Eighth Street Gallery.

In September exhibited the illustrations for Isadore Lhevinne's novel

Tsantsa at the New School for Social Research.

His painting The Exodus Scene from 'the Green Pastures' was exhibited
at the New York Public Library.

The Circulo de Bellas Artes was founded in Quito with the collaboration
of Moscoso and Pazrnifio,
 160

_~32-33 Painted the mural (oil on canvas) Ecuadorian Festival: Mixed Pagan
and Christian Ceremonies in the ante-room of the dance studio of The
New School for Social Research.

_:33 Participated in a drawing exhibition held at the New School for Social
Research. Among other exhibitors was the Mexican painter Orozco.

In February, participated in the exhibition The Social Viewpoint in Art

organized by the John Reed Club in New York City.

_:3-1 Painted the murals Harvesting Food in Ecuador: No Profit Motif in Any
Face or Figure and Harvesting Food in North America in the Caroline
Tilden Bacon Room in the New School for Social Research.

_'::3.j The Sociedad de Artistas was founded in Quito.

_'::36 Egas was appointed director of the Art Workshops of the New School for
Social Research.

:938 Was given a United States honorary citizenship by the city of New York.

_::39 With the assistance of the Ecuadorian painter Eduardo Kingman (1913),
Egas painted the mural and designed the facade of the Ecuadorian Pavil-
ion at the New York World's Fair. The Sindicato de Escritores y Artistas
Ecuatorianos was founded. Some of the members of the Sindicato, the
writers Jorge Reyes, Jose Alfredo Llerena and Alfredo Chavez, organized
the first Sa16n de Mayo with which Indigenismo in the visual arts was
officially launched. The painters Oswaldo Guayasamin (1919), Jose En-
rique Guerrero (1905), Kingman, Latorre, Luis Moscoso, Di6genes Paredes
(1919-c. 1969), Carlos Rodriguez, and Leonardo Tejada participated.
 161

1940 In October 28 Kingman and his brother Nicolas founded the Galerie.
Caspicara in Quito. It became the gathering and exhibiting place for
the Indigenista artists.

1941 Under President Jose Marfa Velasco Ibarra, La Casa de la Cultura Ecu-
atoriana was founded. Its main purpose was to sponsor and promote the
major cultural events in Ecuador. Its first director was the writer Ben-
jamin Carrion who was also one of the main promoters of Indigenismo.

The artistic and literary journal Letras del Ecuador began to be published
by La Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana. Since most of its contributors were
Social Realist and Indigenista artists and writers this journal promoted
those artistic tendencies.

1942 Egas married Alice Nelson. His son Eric was born.

1944 In May 24 the Museo de Arte Colonial was founded in Quito under the
direction of Nicolas Delgado.

1946 On May 14 the first Salon de Bellas Artes was inaugurated in the Casa de
la Cultura Ecuatoriana.

In November Egas had a show, Exhibition of Paintings Camilo Egas, at

the Nicholas M. Acquavella Galleries, New York City, where he exhibited
nineteen paintings and twenty-one Surrealist drawings.

1951 Egas married Claire Plowden.

c. 1952 Traveled to Ecuador, with his wife, to exhibit at La Casa de la Culture.

Ecuatoriana.
 162

1955 In December exhibited twenty-one "abstract-indigenista" paintings at the

ACA Gallery, New York City.

c. 1956 Exhibited at the Museo de Arte Colonial, Quito.

1957 Thirteen paintings and six sketches were shown at the exhibition Egas:
New Paintings held at The New School for Social Research in December.

The Ecuadorian government appointed Egas Travelling Cultural Attache

to the United States, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela.

In May, thirty-four oils and six sketches were shown at the Museo de Bellas
Artes, Caracas.

Travelled to Ecuador in a trip sponsored by The New School for Social

Research.

1962 In May 24 the National Institute of Arts and Letters awarded Egas a two
thousand dollar grant.

In June 5 the New School for Social Research awarded him the degree of
Doctor Honoris Causa in Fine Arts.

In September 18 Egas died of cancer in New York City.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Literature on Camilo Egas

ACA Gallery. Egas Paintings. New York: ACA Gallery, 1955.

Acquavella Galleries. Exhibition of Paintings: Camilo Egas. New York: Nicholas

M. Acquavella Galleries, 1946.

Andrade, Jaime. Letter to author, September 1986.

Andrade, Raul. "La evoluci6n pict6rica de Camilo Egas." El Comercio (Suple-

mento Dominical) (August 26 1956).

"Art from the Andes." The New York Times (September 29 1931).

"Les Arts." Revue de l'Amerique Latine 6 (1923): 94.

Benson, Gertrude. "Art and Social Theories." Creative Art 12, no. 3 (March
1933): 216-219.

"Book Illustrations by Egas." The New York Times (September 21 1932).

Breaj. "La Galerie Carmine ... , [October 31, 1925]." Action Frenceise. Claire
Egas Richards Papers, New York.

Burrows, Carlyle. "Briefer Comment on Current Art Attractions in New York."

New York Herald Tribune (January 8 1933).

163
 164

---. "Native and Foreign Art -A Museum Show." New York Herald Tribune
(June 9 1935).

"Camilo Egas, 62, painter, is dead." The New York Times (September 19, 1962).

"Camilo Egas: Uno de los primeros pintores indigenistas the America." Vida
(Bogota) 5, no. 37 (July 1941): 23.

Cary, Elisabeth Luther. "Drawings, from Clouet to the Moderns, on View." The
New York Times (November 26 1933).

Cogniat, Raymond. "Exposition d'art americain-Iatin au Musee Galliera." Revue

de L'Amerique Latin 7 (1924): 437.

---. "La vie artistique: Les artistes americains aux salons du printemps."
Revue de l'Aiuerique Latine 9 (1925): 547-50.

Crespo 0., Manuel. "Carnilo Egas: Pintor de la raza india." America (Quito) 2,
no. 14 (December 1926): 73.

"El criollismo de Egas, [c. 1917]." Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York City.

Diez, Jorge A. La pintura moderna en el Ecuador. Quito: Talleres Graficos de

Educaci6n, 1938.

"Egas Declines Quito Post." Art Digest 7 (November 15 1932): 27.

"Egas Mural at New School for Social Research." The New York Sun (December
24 1932).

Egas Richards, Claire. Interview with the author. January 8, 1986.

 165

"La exhibici6n pict6rica del ecuatoriano Camilo Egas ha sido recibida con fervor."
La Prensa (Quito) (October 12 1931).

"La exposici6n artistica del maestro Egas, [c. 1926]." El Telegreio [sic] (Guaya-
quil). Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York City.

"La exposici6n de Camilo Egas en Caracas tuvo un gran revuelo." El Comercio

(Suplemento Dominical) (Quito) (August 11 1957).

"Esposici6n de Pintura Americana montara aqui artista ecuatoriano." La Esfera

(Caracas) (May 31 1957).

"L'exposition, dans une galerie de la rrve gauche ... , [c. 1925]." Claire Egas
Richards Papers, New York.

"Exposition du peintre equatorien Camilo Egas, [c. 1925]." Revue du Bureau de

Propagande de l'Association Paris-Amerique Latin. Claire Egas Richards
Papers, New York City.

"Festival Ecuador ... " Buffalo Courier Express (March 19 1933).

"Galeria Camilo Egas: La emoci6n en el arte -Quito inmortal- las originales

tendencias del maestro, un nuevo y valioso triunfo [ J a otros muchos:
Camilo Egas, el pint or [sicJ de la raza india, [1926J." El Telegrafo (Gua-
yaquil). Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York City.

"La galeria 'Egas', [c. 1926J." Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York City.

"La Galeria 'Egas': revista a vuelo de pajaro, [eo 1926J." Claire Egas Richards
Papers, New York City.
 166

Guarderas, F. "El Concurso para proveer a la Catedra de Pint ura de la Escuela de

Bellas Artes de Quito." Revista de la Sociedad Iuxidico-Iiterexie 47-48
(May 1917): 273-277.

"Ha salido ala luz ... , [c. 1926]." Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York City.

Jewell, Edward Alden. "Art: At Eighth Street Gallery." The New York Times
(June 17 1932).

---. "Art in Review: New School Offers a Variety of Exhibitions Including

Egas's Completed Mural." The New York Times (February 9 1933).

1. T. C. "John Reed Club Exhibit." The New York Times (February 2 1933).

Landgren, Marchal E. "Contemporary Paintings in Latin America." London Stu-

dio 18 (November 1939): 193-201.

Lasso, Ignacio. "Cinco pintores del Ecuador." America (Quito) 14, no. 68 (1939):
57-79.

Laville, Henry de. "Camilo Egas, el pintor ecuatoriano que Ie ofrece una obra per-
durable de arte a los Estados Unidos." El Telegrafo (Guayaquil) (February
8 1933).

Linn, Thomas C. "Visiting the New Exhibitions." The New York Times (January
8 1933).

Llerena, Jose Alfredo. La pintura ecuatoriana del siglo veinte. Quito: Imprenta
de la Universidad, 1942.

La Maison de I'Amerique Latine and L'Academie Internationale des Beaux Arts.

Exposition d'Art Aznericain-Larin. Paris: Musee Galliera, 1924.
 167

"Manana se inaugura la exposicion del pintor ecuatoriano Camilo Egas." La Calle

(Caracas) (June 1 1957).

"Mural at the New School for Social Research." American Magazine of Art 26
(March 1933): 150-151.

Museo de Bellas Artes. Exposicioii de Pintura de Camilo Egas. Caracas: Museo

de Bellas Artes, 1957.

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Ecuador, 1978.

Museo del Banco Central. Camilo Egas. Quito: Museo Camilo Egas, Banco Cen-
tral del Ecuador, 1980.

Museum of Modern Art of Latin America. Artist's Index, Camilo Egas file.
Archives of the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America. Washington
D. C.

New School for Social Research and the Ambassador of Ecuador to the United
States. Camilo Egas: Commemorative Exhibition. New York: New School
for Social Research, 1963.

---. Egas: New Paintings. New York: New School for Social Research, 1957.

---. New School Bulletin-Catalogue of Classes: Art Classes. New York: New
School for Social Research, 1932-1962.

"Nous decouvrons ... , [September 30, 1925]." Petit Journal. Claire Egas Richards
Papers, New York City.

"La peinture latine [c. 1924J." Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York City.
 168

Porter, David O. "Camilo Egas: El pint or Ecuatoriano que triunfo en Nueva

York." El Diario del Ecuador (Quito) (June 24 1957).

"Revista de Arte, [1926]." Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York City.

Riga, Carlos. "De Arte." Savia (c. 1926): n.p.

"Sera un rot undo exito la exposicion Egas." El Telegrafo (Guayaquil) (October

4, 1926): n.p.

"La solemne inauguracion de la exposicion Egas, [c. 1926]." El Telegxeio [sic].

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(November 1 1931): 6.

"Tropical murals in a jungle fantasy," Arts and Decoration 45 (January 1937):

39.

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"The Week in New York: A Rooster of Recently Opened Shows." The New York
Times (April 3 1932).

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Amerique Latine. Claire Egas Richards Papers, New York City.
 169

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1964.

Ceballos, Pedro Fermin. Resumen de la Historia del Ecuador desde su ongen

hasta 1845. Lima: Imprenta del estado, 1870.

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ciones arqueo16gicas sobre 10s antiguos pobladores de las provincias del
Carchi y de Imbabura en 1a Republica del Ecuador. Quito: Tipografia y
Encuadernaci6n Salesiana, 1908-1910.

---. Elementos de historia general de la Republica del Ecuador, compuestos

para 10s alumnos del Pensionado Nacional, fundado y dirigido por el Dr.
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---. Historia general de la republica del Ecuador. Quito: Editorial Casa de

la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1969.

---. Notas arque16gicas. Quito: Imprenta del Clero, 1915.

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.Iijon y Caamaiio, Jacinto. Conrribucion el conocimiento de 10s aborigenes de 1a

provincia de Imbabura en 1a Republica del Ecuador. Madrid: Blass y cia.
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---. "Examen critico de la Historia del Reino de Quito del P. Juan de Velasco,
de la Compafiia de Jesus." Bo1etin de 1a Sociedad Ecuatoriana de Estudios
Americanos (later Bo1etin de 1a Academia Naciona1 de Historia) (Quito)
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---. La religion del imperio de 10sIncas. Quito: Tipografia y encuadernacion

Salesiana, 1919.

---. E1 tesoro del Itschimbia. London: John Bale, sons and Danielson, n.d.

---. Los tincullpas y notas acerca de 1a meta1urgia de los aborigenes del

Ecuador. Quito: Tip. y Ecuadernacion Salesianas, 1920.

J'ijon y Caamafio, Jacinto and Carlos Manuel Larrea. "Un cementerio incasico en
Quito y not as acerca de los Incas en el Ecuador." Revista de la Sociedad
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---. Historia de las Indias. Madrid: M. Aguilar, 1927.

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 VITA

Maria Trinidad Perez Arias was born in Quito, Ecuador on 8 October

1959, the daughter of Teresa Arias Salazar and Ramiro Perez Martinez. After
completing her work at El Colegio Americano de Quito in 1977, she entered
Montgomery College, Rockville, Maryland. In the Summer and Fall, 1980 she
participated in the Organization of American States' training program on art
conservation and restoration in Cuzco, Peru. In the Spring, 1982 she entered the
University of Maryland, College Park where she received the degree of Bachelor
of Arts in December, 1983. During the Spring, 1984, she worked at the Museum
of Modern Art of Latin America in Washington D.C., where she had been an
intern since June, 1983. In September, 1984, she entered The Graduate School
of The University of Texas.

Permanent Address: 7501 Democracy Blvd. 239B

Bethesda, Maryland 20817

This thesis was typed by the author using the U-TEXtypsetting program.