Showrooms

Salvador Corona Painted Folding Floor Screen circa 1938 of Vera Cruz Harbor

Creator: Salvador Corona
Offered by: Appleton

Description
A Salvador Corona (1895 -1984) hinged four-panel folding wooden floor screen painted in Mexico circa 1938..

This was the property of the daughter of one of Mexico's wealthiest families of the period, who married the head of an international railroad supply company in their Warren McArthur furnished apartment on Park Avenue. The custom designed Warren McArthur furniture was a gift of the Pullman Company. Later the owner opened a shop in Boothbay, Maine in the early 1950s and on upper Lexington Avenue specializing in the crafts of Mexico in the early 1960s.

This screen and the wedding chest listed separately may have been a wedding present to her from her family or a close friend.

The screen shows a the harbor of 19th Century Acapulco with the major buildings with gold leaf tiled roofs, Spanish galleons in the bay, a whale spouting in the distance, birds, and silver leafed palm trees .

The harbor scene is bordered in gilt painted cord. Within which are appliquéd cutout medallions of various local fish and air bubbles covered in tinfoil ,a new material in the 30s. The tinfoil is finely etched in a variety of intricate patterns. Some of the appliqués are glazed in gold.

The reverse side of the screen is an ivory white back ground with vignettes from the Maximilian era of Mexico.

The screen is in good condition with wear consistent with its age.

Salvador Corona was born on his family's ranch Hacienda Mideras in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Corona’s family moved to Mexico City in 1903 when he was 8. He attended the New English College in Mexico and then crossed into a career in bull fighting entering the ring for the first time in 1913. In 1919 in Guadalajara he was gored and turned to painting.

He was given his first painting lessons by fellow bullfighter Jose Jimenez.

Corona’s painting career spanned many decades and diverse formats including murals, furniture and decorative household items.

In 1939, the Mexican government invited him to exhibit a set of painted furniture at it's booth at the World’s Fair in New York City. There, it was presented to President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a gift. Corona’s work attracted many famous patrons, including the Duchess of Windsor, Gary Cooper and writer Clare Booth Luce.

Salvador Corona’s work featured many Spanish Colonial vignettes, and he became an authority on Spanish and French costumes of the 1800s, which are frequently depicted in his paintings. His favorite subjects often included Mexican Colonial criollos and Purepecha (Tarascan) Indians. Birds and other animals feature prominently in his work.
His traditional self-developed folk art style images depicted pastoral colorful scenes of Maximilian era Mexico painted on white backgrounds.

His work can be divided into three categories: a vice-regal era with European and Creole noblemen mixed with Indians; stylized landscapes of Patscuaro, Acapulco or the Canal of Santa Anita; and his iconographic Mexican Virgins painted in tones of blue, purple, and gold often encrusted with mother of pearl.

Corona moved to Tucson in 1950. His studio and residence was located at 1701 East Speedway Boulevard, and then 902 North 4th Avenue overlooking Catalina Park.

More Information

Documentation:	Signed
Origin:	Mexico
Period:	1920-1949
Materials:	Wood, oil paint, aluminum foil, leather cord, and gold leaf
Condition:	Good. Wear consistent with age. Minor losses here and there
Creation Date:	1938
Styles / Movements:	Modern, Other
Incollect Reference #:	239117