Jesus de la Helguera

JESÚS DE LA HELGUERA ESPINOZA (Chihuahua, 1910 - C. Mexico, 1971)
"Battle".
Mixed media on paper.
Signed in upper left corner.
Measurements: 28 x 21 cm; 50 x 43 cm (frame).

Jesús Enrique Emilio de la Helguera Espinoza was a Spanish-Mexican painter and illustrator. His works are of a romantic and academic nature, and reflect the reality of the time. His work as an illustrator of folkloric themes, Jesus Helguera had non-calendar works, among which his version of the Leda and the swan stands out, a painting in which female eroticism is shown more openly, unlike his more commercial paintings, where female eroticism is more passive. In 1986 a temporary retrospective exhibition entitled Jesús Helguera, painter of almanacs, dedicated to Helguera's work was presented at the Palace of Fine Arts. In 2010 the centennial of his birth was celebrated with different cultural activities. One of the promoting institutions was the Soumaya Museum, which houses some of his works. The illustrations of works by Jesús Helguera come from the collection of calendars now kept by the Institute of Aesthetic Research of the UNAM. The painter's original works are unaccounted for, except for those in private collections and those belonging to the Soumaya Museum. Some of them were exhibited during the winter of 1986-1987, in the Diego Rivera Hall of the Palace of Fine Arts.