Francisco Laso (1823–69) is familiar to Latin American art historians as the painter of El Indo Alfarero/The Indian Potter, ca. 1855, and a few other remarkable images of the indigenous people of Peru. Often described as the isolated forerunner of twentieth-century indigenismo, Laso was an enlightened artist whose work was closely associated with the politics of his day. He invested his figures with a powerful dignity in an effort to reclaim the nation’s heritage and revive its ancient cultural and artistic traditions. Peru’s subsequent indigenista movement concentrated on the living traditions and environment of the Andes, not on the past. Laso’s imagery reveals an empathy and respect for the native people, past and present.
After the wars of independence, a few Peruvian artists (like others throughout Latin America) attempted to create a national identity free of European restraints. Following the lead of the nation’s intellectuals and the vagaries of...
