Literature

Many of the female portraits made by Botero are figments of his imagination, based on a nostalgic remembrance of his childhood and adolescence in his native Antioquia, Colombia. This artwork, “Woman in Blue Dress”, embodies one of those intimate memories, as suggested in the miniature self-portrait of the artist the woman carries in her necklace, while being simultaneously a classic exploration of volume and sensuality, which constitutes the essence of the great Colombian Master’s art. The composition, simple and delicate as well as balanced and complex, reminds us of key female portraits of great painters that Botero deeply admires, such as Titian and Ingres. The colors in the painting, that playfully revolve around different shades of blue, manifest the influence the Mexican popular folk art and the Mexican artistic tradition of the 20th century had on the artist when he lived there in the 1950’s.

As Master Botero himself has said: "If women are often the subject of my paintings, this is because they have been, for centuries, one of the main themes of painting. What really guides me, above all, when I sculpt or paint men, women, animals or objects, is the classic aspect of beings and things. Plasticity exists indiscriminately in a woman, in a still life or in a landscape".