the charm behind the so-called “Mona Lisa” of America

AREQUIPA, Peru – The Gitana Tropical It is an oil painting on wood measuring 46.5 x 38 cm created in 1929. It is also the most outstanding work of Víctor Manuel, who established himself as an icon of the plastic arts of the Island.

Since its creation, the Gitana Tropical has deeply captivated viewers, becoming, as if Mona Lisa o Mona Lisa Americana, in the first classic of Cuban pictorial Modernism.

For Víctor Manuel, pioneer of Modern Art in Cuba and rediscoverer of national identity, painting was his only passion. Born in Havana in 1897, he was the son of an employee at the San Alejandro Academy and began attending his classrooms at the age of twelve.

In 1924, he presented his first exhibition and the following year he undertook his trip to Europe. In Montparnasse, a group of artists baptized him Victor Emmanuel. For him, artists should be contemporary and paint only when there was a genuine emotional connection between the painter and the object of his representation.

This idea, also embraced by other painters of the time, allowed them to capture the feelings of the first 20 years of republican life through their visual representations.

Returning to the Cuban capital in 1927, Victor Manuel exhibited at the Association of Painters and Sculptors, causing a significant impact on the public and announcing the arrival of modernity. The artist, tireless, recreated his themes again and again, highlighting cinnamon-skinned women with nostalgic looks and landscapes of the Havana surroundings.

After another trip to Europe in 1929, Victor Manuel painted his masterpiece in Paris, Gitana Tropical. This female portrait, made with oil and vibrant colors, is the first classic of Cuban pictorial modernism. It features an exotic mestiza with prominent red lips, a fusion of Cuban mulatto with indigenous features in her hair and eyes.

The execution of the painting is simplistic, with primitive features and few details. Blue is the color that dominates the chromatic composition. Long brush strokes are intertwined with small white and gray touches that shine on the girl’s outfit.

The Gypsy’s face is undoubtedly the center of attraction of the painting, with her enormous oblique eyes and striking lips, forcing us to focus on her again and again.

That seductive woman who is the image of Caribbean femininity and Latin sensuality, shows at the same time a nostalgic and friendly gaze, which observes us and dialogues with us, evoking the spirituality of the spectators, who continue to dazzle as the first day.

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