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Photo, Print, Drawing Notables of the Capital, Province of Socorro. Socorro. Notables de la capital

About this Item

Title

  • Notables of the Capital, Province of Socorro.

Other Title

  • Socorro. Notables de la capital

Summary

  • This watercolor by Carmelo Fernández (1809-87) shows four people of mostly European ancestry, the elite class in Socorro in the early 1850s. The city was then the capital of a province of the same name and is now a city and municipality in Santander Department, in the northeast of present-day Colombia. Fernández was born in San José de Guama, Venezuela, into a well-connected family (he was the nephew of José Antonio Páez, a hero of Venezuelan independence and three times president). He studied art in New York when still a youth. He returned home in 1827 and served in the military, where he mastered topographical drawing. Political turmoil in Venezuela prompted him to move to New Granada (present-day Colombia and Panama) in 1849. There he became the first draftsman for the Comisión Corográfica (Chorographic Commission), which was co-founded and directed by Agustín Codazzi (1793--1859), an Italian-born geographer and engineer. The commission, which began work in 1850, studied the geography, cartography, natural resources, natural history, regional culture, and agriculture of New Granada. In 1850--52 Fernández painted about 30 watercolors in the provinces northeast of Bogotá: Tunja, Pamplona, Ocaña, Socorro, Vélez, and Santander. These works, which are now in the National Library of Colombia, portray the diverse ethnic, racial, and social groups and the varied physical landscape of New Granada. Fernández was succeeded on the commission by Henry Price (1819-1863) and later Manuel María Paz (1820-1902). He returned to Caracas aged 43, where he lived most of the rest of his life. In 1873 he produced his most famous work, a portrait of Símon Bolívar that appears on Venezuelan coins.

Names

  • Colombia. Comisión Corográfica Sponsor.
  • Fernández, Carmelo, 1809-1887 Artist.

Created / Published

  • [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 1850.

Headings

  • -  Colombia--Santander--Socorro
  • -  1850
  • -  Clothing and dress
  • -  Expeditions and surveys
  • -  Hats
  • -  Regional Memory of the World Register, Scientific Memory of Andean America

Notes

  • -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
  • -  Original resource extent: 1 painting : watercolor ; 29 x 21 centimeters.
  • -  Original resource at: National Library of Colombia.
  • -  Content in Spanish.
  • -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Medium

  • 1 online resource.

Source Collection

  • Colección Comisión Corográfica

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021670128

Online Format

  • compressed data
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Colombia. Comisión Corográfica Sponsor, and Carmelo Fernández. Notables of the Capital, Province of Socorro. Socorro Santander Colombia, 1850. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021670128/.

APA citation style:

Colombia. Comisión Corográfica Sponsor & Fernández, C. (1850) Notables of the Capital, Province of Socorro. Socorro Santander Colombia, 1850. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021670128/.

MLA citation style:

Colombia. Comisión Corográfica Sponsor, and Carmelo Fernández. Notables of the Capital, Province of Socorro. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021670128/>.