“Nombres dignos de memoria”: writing the History of Mexican Art in the Nineteenth-Century

Abstract

A review of the earliest publications on colonial art in Mexico from the mid to late
nineteenth century reveals the roles of nationalism and partisan politics in the documentation and
interpretation of colonial works of art. In the 1840s and 1850s, numerous articles were published
in newspapers that describe various viceregal churches and monasteries. By mid-century, the
Academy of San Carlos would take the lead in the process of defining a history of Mexican art and
reframing colonial works of art as works by national artists. José Bernardo Couto, president of San
Carlos started by building the collection of painting representing the Old Mexican School and then
writing the first sustained history of painting in Mexico. When looking at the early development of
art history writing in Mexico in the latter part of the nineteenth century, it is equally important to
recognize that Mexican art during this period was drawing the attention of individuals from
outside of Mexico, specifically in the United States. One such individual was Robert Henry
Lamborn, a railroad mogul and art collector whose research and writing on the subject must be
seen, not exclusively but in large part, as an outgrowth of his business interests. Comparing the
work of someone like Robert H. Lamborn to Couto’s underlines the degree to which politicized
nationalistic tendencies were shaping the narratives that were being written in Mexico City, and
how that vision differed in relation to foreign perspectives of the same.