Gouache on card stock. 386x315 mm; 15 1/4x12 3/8 inches. Signed in gouache, lower right recto.
Fidelio Ponce de León (1895-1949)was born Alfredo Fuentes Pons in Camagüey, Cuba. His inconsistent attendance at the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts in Havana set a precedent for a life of mysterious disappearances and instability. In paradox, his work showed meticulous technicality and an unmistakable, consistent style. After his studies, he abandoned Havana for approximately five years in 1918. When he resurfaced, he joined Wifredo Lam (see lot 266) in the Cuban cultural and political Vanguardia movement of the 1920s. The Vanguardia artists rejected convention in favor of their own national brand of Modernist. Ponce, though he never studied in Europe, counted Amadeo Modigliani (see lot 328), Rembrandt van Rijn and El Greco as his influences, producing elongated forms with a nostalgic sentimentality and a muted palette. Though he achieved international success, Ponce struggled with alcoholism and declining health. After a second disappearance from 1937 to 1940, he died of tuberculosis in Havana in 1949.
