The Last Moments of Atala

The oeuvre of the academic artist, Luis Monroy, was mainly produced during the last third of the XIXth century. The painting entitled The Last Moments of Atala was executed in 1871 and shown at the San Carlos Academy´s XVth Exhibition, later being among the Mexican works on show at the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876 and at the Chicago Exhibition in 1893. 

The work was inspired by De Chateaubriand´s novel, Atala ou les amours de deux sauvages dans le désert (Atala or the Loves of two Savages in the Desert) which, published in 1801, was a huge hit with French society. 

Basing itself on a religio-historical topic, the piece tells the story of a love that was impossible in the atmosphere of the time, when spiritual values transcended passion. 

Atala, the daughter of a Spanish settler in North America and a native woman converted to Christianity, falls in love with a native boy. She prefers to die rather than lose her virginity, since she has promised her mother that she will remain chaste and faithful to Christianity.

The artist depicts the indescribable suffering of the young Chactas, a warrior of the Outlalissi tribe, at the moment when the funeral rites are being celebrated in a cave. The stricken, pain-distorted face of the kneeling lover, who is holding a cross and weeping inconsolably at the feet of his beloved, is very tellingly rendered…

...while the stooping figure of Father Aubry, who is kindling a light that appears to represent the hope that will carry Atala's soul to God, is the very embodiment of resignation.