New Robe No. 2

Federico Castellon's painstakingly drawn lithograph New Robe No. 2 features three women with loose flowing hair. A statuesque partly draped nude, seen from behind, watches a dark-haired woman, also partly draped, spread a robe across the shoulders of a third nude, who cradles her companion's arm. In the right background is a vista of an idyllic mountainous landscape. On the left, serving as a backdrop to the woman being dressed, is a wall from which the smooth surface has been eroded in a small area, exposing brick beneath. The different positions of the three women demonstrate the artist's skill in rendering the front, side, and back of the female figure, but the meaning of the scene depicted is cryptic. Castellon's subtly nuanced shading imbues it with a timeless quietude that, along with the partly draped figures, evoke the sculpture of classical Greece, while the smooth features and heavy lidded eyes of the woman recall early Northern Renaissance portrait paintings. The mysterious nature of the narrative pictured and the hyperreal smooth perfection of the surfaces of the bodies and folded drapery align this work with the artistic movement known as surrealism, for which the strangeness of dream imagery served as an important inspiration.

Castellon was self-taught and his artistic talents were evident as a teenager. In 1934, the important Mexican artist Diego Rivera (1886—1957), who was in New York City working on murals for Rockefeller Center, encouraged Castellon's artistic development and fostered his association with the Weyhe Gallery. The gallery, in turn, was instrumental in launching the artist's collaboration in lithography with master printer George C. Miller, beginning in 1937. The subtle surface effects achieved in New Robe No. 2 are seen in lithographs Miller printed with other artists, such as Grant Wood's Sultry Night (TF 1996.78) and Mabel Dwight's Queer Fish (TF 1996.16).

L'Amérique et les modernes, 1900–1950 (American Moderns, 1900–1950), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, July 25–October 31, 2000. [exh. cat.]

Freundlich, August L. Federico Castellon: His Graphic Works 1936–1971. Syracuse, New York: College of Visual and Performing Arts, Syracuse University, 1979. No. 6, p. 123; ill. p. 38.

Adams, Clinton. American Lithographers 1900–1960: The Artists and Their Printers. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 1983. Text p. 92; fig. 55, p. 93.