Reading Don Quixote

The first Peruvian academic painter to be educated in Europe was Ignacio Merino, who participated in the definition of costumbrismo and at the same time assumed the decisive role of teaching the first generation of Peruvian academic painters. From 1850, when he established himself definitively in the Old World, Merino abandoned the depiction of Peruvian themes and launched an ambitious career in the official salons of Paris, where he enjoyed a degree of success. Reading Don Quixote was exhibited at the 1861 Paris Salon. The painter imagines a scene in which Cervantes is reading the manuscript of his celebrated novel to his protégé the Count of Lemos; in other words, he opts to represent the story from the perspective of the writer facing his public. Through the gestures and postures of those listening attentively, the artist attempts to instill in the viewer similar feelings of admiration for the creative process. By transforming the story into an anecdote, Merino appeals directly to the tastes of the new bourgeois public. This interest in historical recreation reflects his debt to the narrative, anecdotal and historicist painting developed at the turn of the century in France by Paul Delaroche and Léon Coignet. (NM)