Valentín Arcila, Portrait of José Antonio Gelabert y Garcés, 1770. Oil paint on canvas; 39 × 31 in. Gift of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2009.436.

sight height: 39 in, 99.0600 cm; sight width: 31 in, 78.7400 cm; frame height: 49 in, 124.4600 cm; frame width: 41 in, 104.1400 cm; frame depth: 2 in, 5.0800 cm

Inscribed on the card that the sitter holds: "a D,na Maria Antonia Gelabert q… Dios m,s a.s Barzelona." Inscribed on the document with wax seal: "Zuentas: del Rl Hasienda tornadas por mi Dn Jph Antt Gelabert Secretario del Rey, y de su Consejo Contador del tribun de la Mayor de Cuentas de la Ysla de Cuba, y las de Baxto Bento." Inscribed on the card in the background: "Sexto ene. ano de 1770 a los 62 de su hedad Valentin Px"

Mayer Center, Latin American Art

Latin American Art

This painting was completed in Havana on 6 January 1770 and is one of the only portraits from colonial Cuba in the collection of an American public museum. Skillfully executed, signed and dated by a little known artist named Valentín, the painting is of José Antonio Gelabert y Garcés, a native of Barcelona, Spain. Gelabert was a historically significant figure who oversaw Spain's royal treasury in Havana, which included jurisdiction over most of the Spanish Caribbean, parts of Eastern Mexico, and much of what is now America's Gulf Coast. Gelabert’s high status is indicated by his Spanish coat of arms, the sumptuous fabrics that comprise his clothing, a prominent diamond pinky ring, and documents with a red wax seal that he presents to the viewer. As the inscribed documents indicate, Gelabert oversaw the accounts for the coast guard ("barlovento"), which protected the region from rampant piracy and persistent attacks by the British navy.
     Gelabert arrived in Havana prior to 1748, when he is recorded to have brought the first coffee plants to the island from Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). He and his wife, Catalina Hipólita Martínez de Acosta, had a daughter named María Andrea Gelabert who married and settled in Havana. Her direct descendants include Mario García Menocal, president of Cuba from 1913-1921.
-- Julie Wilson Frick, 2017

Reportedly Private Collection, Barcelona, Spain, before 2002; reportedly (Private Dealer), Barcelona, 2003. (Francisco Marcos Anticuario), Salamanca, Spain, by 2008; (Valery Taylor Gallery), Denver, CO, May 2008; purchase, Denver Art Museum with funds from Frederick and Jan Mayer, Denver, 2009. Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.

• American Adversaries: West and Copley in a Transatlantic World, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, September 22, 2013 - January 5, 2014