José María Velasco: from Mexico to London

From 29 March to 17 August 2025, the National Gallery in London presents the exhibition “José María Velasco: A View of Mexico”

Source: National Gallery · Image: José María Velasco, ‘Vista de la fábrica de hilados La Carolina (Puebla)’, National Gallery of Prague © National Gallery of Prague / photo by Andrea Rývová

The first monographic exhibition in the UK devoted to José María Velasco (1840–1912), Mexico’s most celebrated 19th-century painter, will take place at the National Gallery early next year (29 March – 17 August 2025).

José María Velasco: A View of Mexico, the first ever dedicated to a Latin American artist at the National Gallery, coincides with the 200th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the UK and Mexico.

José María Velasco is famed for his monumental paintings of the Valle de México, the area surrounding Mexico City, the nation’s capital. Painted during decades of tremendous social change, his precise yet lyrical works depicted Mexico’s magnificent scenery and rapid industrialisation.

While Velasco, as one of Mexico’s most eminent artists, showed work in Europe and the United States during his lifetime and still enjoys great prominence in his home country, he is no longer well known abroad. There is no painting by Velasco in a UK public collection and the last large-scale exhibition devoted to him outside Mexico was held in 1976 (in San Antonio and Austin, Texas), almost 50 years ago.

Velasco received many distinctions as Mexico’s representative at numerous international exhibitions in the 1880s and 1890s. But he was much more than just a painter of the nation. A true polymath, he was also a botanist, naturalist, and geologist with highly developed interests in both Mesoamerican and modern history. He approached drawing and painting not only in search of beauty but also as part of a quasi-scientific process, seeking out multiple ways to develop and express empirical knowledge. His varied paintings explore the relationship between different cultures, ancient and modern, Mexico’s mountainous terrain, flora and fauna, and the impact of industrialisation on the landscape. This exhibition will consider these wide-ranging interests and their influence on his art.