From San Juan to Paris and Back: Francisco Oller and Caribbean Art in the Era of Impressionism

Abstract

Art at the crossroads: Francisco Oller and Caribbean artReview of:Edward J. Sullivan From San Juan to Paris and Back: Francisco Oller and Caribbean Art in the Era of Impressionism, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2014, 208 pp., 81 colour + 18 b/w ills, $60.00 hdbk, ISBN: 978-0-300-20320-2Katherine ManthorneFrancisco Oller (1833-1917) was a Puerto Rican visual artist whose career straddled a tumultuous period in the island's history, during which it transitioned from a Spanish colonial outpost to a protectorate of its increasingly powerful neighbour, the United States. Far from being a provincial figure, he had several extended residences in Europe, studying first in Spain and then living and working in Paris. He counted European avant-garde artists from Gustave Courbet to Paul Cezanne among his acquaintances, and absorbed the lessons of their styles and content. Yet whether he was painting landscape, portraiture, history painting or still life, he was expressing some quintessential aspect of Puerto Rican culture. Until now the literature on this artist has been limited, given that major scholarly attention was directed toward him over thirty years ago: the monumental 1983 exhibition Franciso Oller: Un realista del Impresionismo for the Museo de Arte de Ponce, and Osiris Mercado Delgado monograph Franciso Oller y Cestero (1833-1917): Pintor de Puerto Rico.1 These projects were groundbreaking efforts, and laid the foundation for all future research. But as Delgado Mercado's subtitle indicates, he was more concerned with positioning Oller as the leader of a national school of Puerto Rican art. With the publication of Edward J. Sullivan's From San Juan to Paris and Back: Francisco Oller and Caribbean Art in the Era of Impressionism, the artist can now be recognized as a key figure in the broader history of the nineteenth century. This volume provides critical insights into his career, which in turn provides a lens through which to follow the forging of nineteenth century Caribbean art. Situating him simultaneously in Caribbean and trans-Atlantic contexts, the author deftly presents new interpretations of even the most familiar of his artistic production. This book, with its depth of documentation and bounty of colour illustrations, presents Oller as an artist as complex and creative as the Caribbean.The author Edward J. Sullivan is Helen Gould Sheppard Professor of Art History at the Institute of Fine Arts and the Department of Art History, New York University. A pre-eminent scholar of Latin American, he has long been an important voice in the field. Over time he has directed his attention to artists from most of the countries in the Americas, from Mexico to Brazil but has turned his attention increasingly toward the Caribbean.Successive chapters of From San Juan to Paris and Back offer close readings of key works, which in turn open vistas onto critical dimensions of Caribbean visual culture. Chapter 1 'embeds Oller within a complex history of developments of art and society in the Caribbean basi'. (9) It situates the artist first in Puerto Rico's nascent art tradition, which Oller self-consciously assessed and mined. In particular he struggled to come to terms with its most famous representative Jose Campeche, who cast a long shadow with his religious paintings and portraits of the island's Spanish rulers. Chapter 2 follows him on his residences in Spain and France as his style developed with each new influence and opportunity. Next the author presents an in-depth examination of The School of Master Rafael Cordero (discussed below). Chapter 4 then scrutinizes 'the dilemma of official painting' via his history painting Battle of Trevino. Sullivan here positions Oller's art between Spanish figures such as Mariano Fortuny y Marsal on the one hand and French artists of his day including Courbet, Camille Pissarro and Cezanne on the other, in order to pinpoint how the Puerto Rican artist assimilated their various lessons to create his personal style. …