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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, NEW JERSEY
Lot 36

MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS
(1904-1957)
Rumba

17 November 2020, 17:00 EST
New York

Sold for US$19,062.50 inc. premium

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MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS (1904-1957)

Rumba
watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paper
14 15/16 x 19 in (38 x 48.2 cm)
Executed circa 1930

Footnotes

Provenance
Rosa Covarrubias.
Adriana Williams Collection (gifted from the above); her sale, Rago Auctions, Lambertville, November 5, 2016, lot 208.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

The present lot hails from an important collection: that of Adriana Williams, the preeminent biographer on Covarrubias' life and expert on his works. Williams received Rumba as a gift from her long-time friend, the artist's wife Rosa Rolanda, during a trip to Mexico City in the 1960s. The artist would have painted this exciting piece around the time that he and Rolanda vacationed in Cuba, for the first time in 1926 and the second in 1932. According to Ms. Williams, the work is a study for the painting Malecón de la Habana, or Rumba, as exhibited at Mexico City's Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo in 1987.

Famous for his appreciation of cultural identity and ethnology, Miguel Covarrubias' artworks often explored social traditions and community. With its vibrant blues, pinks, and reds and its pulsating sense of rhythm, Rumba shines in this regard, inviting viewers into a festive, distinctly Afro-Latin American scene.

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