Bustos, Hermenegildo (1832–1907)

Hermenegildo Bustos (b. 1832; d. 1907), Mexican painter. Bustos lived his entire life in the town of Purísima del Rincón, Guanajuato. The diverse types of jobs he held—ice vendor, sacristan, carpenter, maguey planter, and musician—allowed him to bring to his canvases a variety of themes, which were combined with the freshness of a smalltown painter who worked by assignment.

The great majority of his work consists of exvotos, a form of religious expression popularized in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These small works, painted in lamina, depict tragic scenes from which the subjects felt they had been saved by the miraculous intercession of a saint, to whom the ex-voto was dedicated. The ex-votos of Bustos are distinguished by the individuality he gave to his subjects. His talent as a portraitist enabled him to capture with a rural flavor the features of his subjects—whom we know by name, thanks to an inscription on the ex-voto.

Bustos did more than paint models; he instilled his subjects with a character that went beyond physical features. Two of his dining-room paintings are outstanding for their iconography and extraordinary pictorial quality, recalling the botanical illustrations of the eighteenth century. The paintings must have been highly prized by Bustos, since they remained in his home until his death.

See alsoArt: The Nineteenth Century; Retablos and ExVotos.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pascual Aceves Barajas, Hermenegildo Bustos; su vida y su obra (1956).

Raquel Tibol, Hermenegildo Bustos; Pintor del Pueblo, 2d ed. (1992).

Additional Bibliography

Ortiz Angulo, Ana. La pintura mexicana independiente de la Academia en el siglo XIX. Mexico, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 1995.

                                      Esther Acevedo