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Three Mexican fotoesculturas: hand-carved wooden portrait busts of a young man and two young women, each carrying a hand-tinted photograph of the sitter’s face. They date to the 1940s and came to me through the dealer who supplies my ex-voto retablos. They are sold together as a set, exactly as found.
The work
Fotoescultura (“photo sculpture”) is a Mexican folk art form that flourished from the late 1920s to the early 1980s. A family’s studio photograph went to a carver, who cut the sitter’s head and shoulders from a board and carved the clothing in relief. The photograph was then trimmed to the face, glued in place and tinted by hand. These portraits were commissioned to honour the living and remember the dead, and were kept most of all during and after the Second World War, for sons and brothers who were away.
The young man wears a lavender-blue jacket with his white shirt collar spread over the lapels. One young woman wears a sage-green blouse with an open collar and puffed shoulders. The other wears a gathered turquoise blouse with a dark yoke edged in silver zigzag trim, her hair falling to her shoulders. The clothing is painted in thin washes that let the wood grain show, and each outline is knife-chamfered by hand on the back. The three match in board, scale and carving, and have stayed together. Fotoesculturas were usually set in a carved frame under glass; these have survived without theirs.
Measurements
Each: 9" H x 6" W x 0.5" D (22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm)
Condition
Sold exactly as found, uncleaned and unrestored, without frames or glass. The young man’s face shows fine cracks along the wood grain and light rubbing, and a check crack runs across his back. The long-haired woman’s face and hair are rubbed, with a pale bloom and small losses at the hair’s edge. The woman in green has lost part of her photograph across the left cheek and jaw, down to bare wood, with lifting and tide-line staining at the neck; her back carries old red drip stains. Her losses show the photographic layer clearly, the mark of a genuine fotoescultura.
Appraisal
Gallery replacement value: $650. This is what it would cost to replace this set of three through a gallery, for insurance and estate purposes.
One photograph shows the portraits staged in a setting, provided only to help you picture them on display. The portraits are unaltered and untouched, and photographs of the actual pieces are included. Only the three portraits are included.
Shipping and import fees
Shipping is free. Depending on your country, it travels by express or by standard international service, always with tracking, which you will receive upon purchase. Import duty and tax are paid by the buyer. Tariff code 4420.19. If your delivery country differs from your account country, message me before purchasing.
Destination | Import duty | Import tax | Estimated total
United States | set by customs at delivery | none collected at import | assessed at delivery
Canada | set by customs at delivery | 5% GST, or 13–15% HST by province | $16 – $48 plus any duty
United Kingdom | set by customs at delivery | 20% VAT, collected at delivery | about $65 plus any duty
European Union | set by customs at delivery | 17% – 27% VAT, collected at delivery | $55 – $87 plus any duty
Australia | none on orders under AUD 1,000 | 10% GST, charged at checkout | about $32, paid at checkout
Where anything is collected at delivery, the carrier may add a small handling fee.
Questions? You will always reach a real person, never AI.
God bless,
Ricardo Ivan Cardenas EMBA
St. Joseph’s University New York Business School Graduate
Price
$323
