Magdalena y Aurora Mira

Victor Herrera Carvacho, 1953

Carvacho Herrera, Victor. Magdalena y Aurora Mira. Santiago de Chile: np, 1953. 26.5 cm, 22, [1], pp.; booklet toned, followed by 14 b/w plates from photographs by Rene Combeau mounted to card with captions identifying the location of the work, in addition to the normal data; plates loose, in orig. paper wrapper with portrait tipped-in, wrapper worn and splitting, old repair on verso not visible recto. Edition limited to 100 copies, this copy no. 95. Extra-illustrated?

The earliest monographic study of the Chilean painters Magdalena (1859-1930) and Aurora (1863-1939) Mira, published to coincide with a privately organized exhibition of their work in their family house in Santiago.

The sisters were from a socially prominent family; their father was an artist who helped them gain admittance to the Chilean Painting Academy. Magdalena and Aurora were two of the first women to study painting in Chile at the national academy, and their skill was recognized during their lifetimes with a number of medals at national salons in the 1880s and 1890s. Despite these early successes, both women ultimately prioritized domestic lives and rarely exhibited after 1895. Their story is emblematic of the changing opportunities and limits faced by upper class Chilean women in the late 19th century.

This midcentury study is an important object of the history of their reception in Chile. Now celebrated in Chile as “pioneering” women artists, the next major monograph of their work, Magdalena y Aurora Mira: Pioneras del Arte Femenino, was not published until 2013.

OCLC finds two copies of the portfolio, at UConn and Biblioteca Nacional de Chile, both local catalogs reference 10 plates. The present copy has 14.

$550