Fernando Botero

FERNANDO BOTERO (Medellín, Colombia, 1932–Monaco, 2023).
“Woman Smoking,” ca. 1985.
Lithograph on paper, edition XLVI/L.
Signed in pencil in the lower right corner and dated in the lower left corner.
Edition of 50 copies.
The paper has adhesive marks in the upper corners.
Measurements: 40 x 33 cm; 68 x 60 cm (frame).

Created in the mid-1980s, during a period of full artistic maturity for Fernando Botero, this lithograph encapsulates some of the most recognizable features of his exploration of the human figure. The deliberate exaggeration of volumes is not intended to be caricature-like, but rather stems from a unique system of proportions through which the artist endows his figures with a monumental, stable, and emphatic presence.

The woman, depicted standing alone against a neutral background, occupies almost the entire composition. She crosses one arm over her torso while holding a cigarette in her other hand—a gesture that introduces a note of ease and reinforces the character’s self-assurance. The restrained expression on her face is a hallmark of her attention directed toward her earrings, necklace, hair ribbon, and the pattern of her dress, whose linear motifs enliven the surface and soften the figure’s solidity.

The work combines elegance, irony, and a subtle theatricality. The background eliminates any narrative reference and focuses the viewer’s gaze on the silhouette, on the relationship between mass and contour, and on the almost sculptural conception of the body. Botero thus transforms an everyday scene into an image of striking presence, in which formal boldness coexists with the delicacy of the details.

Fernando Botero was one of the most internationally renowned Latin American artists. He developed an unmistakable artistic language based on the monumentality of forms, through which he explored everyday scenes, portraits, still lifes, reinterpretations of art history, and episodes from Colombian reality. His work is represented in institutions such as the Botero Museum in Bogotá, the Museum of Antioquia in Medellín, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington.