Arcadópolis
A woman carrying a vessel on her head and a child on her back
Pancho Fierro, c. 1848
What you see
A woman walks in profile toward the left, very upright, balancing a large clay jar on her head atop a pad of white cloth. A green shawl crosses her chest and holds a baby on her back, and a woven basket hangs from her arm. The vertical line running from jar to feet anchors the center of the sheet.
Her skirt is a deep blue, darker where the wash pooled, and the jar glows reddish orange with a pale highlight. Her bare feet rest on an oval shadow. Watch for the baby's little face peeking over the shawl, and for the word “Chicha” penciled below.
About Pancho Fierro
Francisco “Pancho” Fierro was born in Lima in 1807, the son of a priest and an enslaved woman of the household, and earned his living painting shop signs, bullfight posters and murals. His quick, humorous watercolours portray the tapadas, street vendors, friars, musicians and riders of nineteenth-century Lima, usually against an empty background that leaves the spotlight on clothing and gesture. He painted more than a thousand scenes, which were exported to Europe, Asia and North America, and the painter José Sabogal called him “the first Peruvian artist”.
More by Pancho Fierro
Tapada limeña
A man and woman dancing the Zamacueca
Lady bathing at Chorrillos
A watercarrier riding a donkey
A woman getting into her saya viewed from behind
A woman walking with a Llama
A man riding a mule, his whip raised, another mule loaded with grass alongside
Two musicians and a man carrying on his head a rooster in cage
A priest from the Mercederian order (Order of Our Lady of Mercy)
The Arcadópolis Museum has 443 public-domain works in 40 rooms, free to explore in 3D in your browser.