THE FERNANDO BOTERO SMILE

WITH HIS LARGE-FORMAT PAINTING FROM 1959, FERNANDO BOTERO DREW INSPIRATION FROM ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS IMAGES IN WESTERN ART HISTORY: LEONARDO DA VINCI'S MONA LISA.

Rather than offering a mere reproduction or an ironic twist, Botero presents a surprisingly personal reinterpretation. He depicts the Gioconda as a child, her proportions exaggerated, her face round, all the while retaining the mysterious smile of the original.

FERNANDO
BOTERO

Monalisa, 1959
Charcoal, pastel and wax crayons
on brown paper on panel, 144 × 122 cm
Estimate:
CHF 250 000 / 350 000

Here already one sees the signature formal language that would define Botero’s later work – the volumes that fill the frame, the monumental treatment of the body and a meticulous composition. Our front-facing figure wears a striped dress and holds a dark flower – a poetic detail that asserts itself against the stylistic exaggeration. Pink and vivid blue accents grant the large-scale drawing on paper an unexpected touch of colour, hinting at the young artist’s experimental zest for painting. ‘Monalisa’ belongs to a small group of works in which Botero uses the iconic Gioconda as a canvas for his artistic investigations – all created before the breakthrough of the unmistakable style he wryly termed ‘Boterismo’. It is closely related to the 1961 painting ‘Mona Lisa, Aged 12’, which was acquired by New York’s Museum of Modern Art, providing a decisive impetus for the international career of the 29-year-old Colombian artist.

With subtle humour and formal rigour, Botero marries art-historical references and individual flair. This drawing bears witness to his early dialogue with European tradition, especially the Old Masters, whom he studied intensively during his 1953–54 sojourn in Europe. Botero’s Mona Lisa thus alludes not only to Leonardo da Vinci but also to modernist stratagems – from Marcel Duchamp’s Mona Lisa readymade ‘L.H.O.O.Q.’, to Andy Warhol’s iconic series. In this fusion of Western art history and Latin American perspective, Botero comments on art’s commercialisation and the metamorphosis of a painting into a widely consumed cultural commodity. He forged a language of his own – one that intertwines local reality, political critique and art-historical reflection.

FERNANDO
BOTERO

Ms. Rubens #3, 1964
Oil on canvas, 183 × 178 cm
Sold at Koller
for CHF 825 000

Botero’s works are represented in major museums and public collections worldwide; in 20th-century art history he stands as a singular figure straddling tradition and pop culture. His oeuvre challenges viewers to reflect on beauty, power and social norms. Exhibited globally since the 1970s – often in public spaces – his sculptures in Paris, New York and Medellín have helped him reach a broad audience. While venerated in Latin America, his work was long dismissed by some Western connoisseurs as merely ‘popular’ – a prejudice that is increasingly diminishing. This rare early work in our forthcoming auction documents the phase in which Botero’s unique pictorial voice emerged, balanced between heartfelt homage and ironic distance, or as he himself put it: ‘I describe a non-realistic reality in a realistic form.’