The Cuban Maja: La Mulata in the Work of Víctor Patricio Landaluze

Spanish artist Víctor Patricio Landaluze came to Cuba in 1850 and spent his life depicting in prints, watercolours, and paintings all aspects of Cuban life. His prolific oeuvre is uncontested as the among the most detailed visual documentation of quotidian life for nineteenth-century Afro-Cubans. This paper will explore the complex legacy of Landaluze’s fascination with the Cuban mulata and argue for recognizing the similarities between Landaluze’s portrayal of the Cuban mulata and Francisco de Goya’s construction of the Spanish maja. Through the figure of the mulata, Landaluze intermixes the legacy of Goya with Caribbean costumbrismo to produce one of the most influential images of Cuban identity.