Friends

Another work by Della Valle present in this collection is Las amigas (Friends, c.1884/1885). Produced when he returned from Europe due to an illness, it depicts an interior with two unidentified female figures. These characters seem to look over prints; they assess one being held in one woman’s hands and others hang on the wall in the background, in what could be an artist’s studio. The image that they observe, amused, is recognizable as a print by Della Valle with a parodic tone: Don Eusebio de la Santa Federación (Don Eusebio of the Holy Federation, c.1884). The image of this popular pro-Rosas character is taken from a painting by Barón de Sans (1939, Museo Histórico Nacional), and is Della Valle’s first known collaboration with La Ilustración Argentina magazine as an illustrator. Dedicated “to [my] friend Miguel C. Lagleyze,” at the lower right along with his signature, it was a gift from the artist to Doctor Pedro Lagleyze’s older brother, who was also an ophthalmologist and a great friend.