Jean Charlot: Visions of Mexico, 1933

Jean Charlot, Bathers, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 8 x 6 inches (20.3 x 15.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.4.7. © The Jean Charlot Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. — Jean Charlot, *Bathers*, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 8 x 6 inches (20.3 x 15.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.4.7. © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

From an early age, French-born artist Louis Henri Jean Charlot (1898–1979) was fascinated by the ancient Americas. Through his grandfather, a native of Mexico City, and great-uncle, a collector of Mexican art and manuscripts, Charlot received an early education in ancient Mayan and Aztec history and culture. After serving in World War I, Charlot moved with his mother from Paris to Mexico in 1921. Soon after their arrival, Charlot began assisting with archaeological expeditions, writing art criticism, making prints and paintings, and even apprenticing with Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (1886–1957).

In 1928, after working as an archaeological illustrator at the Mayan site of Chichén Itzá in the Yucatán, Charlot moved to the United States, where he published a set of lithographs of Mexican scenes and his favorite creative subjects: laborers, women, and children of Indigenous descent. These prints, published as Picture Book (1933), pair images with verses written in English and French by Charlot and the French poet Paul Claudel (1868–1955), respectively. Charlot borrowed this format from Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913), who produced political cartoons with witty captions. Using a unique technique that blended colors to create statuesque and geometric forms, Charlot depicted scenes of Mexican daily life and the merging of Catholicism with local Indigenous beliefs.

Jean Charlot: Visions of Mexico, 1933 investigates Charlot’s relationship to Mexico’s Indigenous past and its colonial legacy by presenting his lithographs alongside prints by Posada and sculpture from the Nasher’s Art of the Americas collection. Charlot’s vivid, dynamic prints draw from biblical narratives, local textile traditions, and the arts of Mexico, both ancient and modern.

This exhibition is co-organized by three undergraduate Duke students, Erin Crumpler ’21, Alana Hyman ’22, and Noah Michaud ’21, and the Nasher Museum’s Academic Initiatives department, with research support from Helen Jennings ’23 and Sofia Zymnis ’21.

Jean Charlot, Pastoras, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 8 x 6 inches (20.3 x 15.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.4.8. © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Jean Charlot, Woman Standing, Child on Back, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 9 1/8 x 7 inches (23.2 x 17.8 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.7.1. © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Maya, Kneeling figure with head basket, 250–600 CE. Stone, 6 3/4 x 5 3/4 x 3 inches (17.1 x 14.6 x 7.6 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Ethel Glass, 2003.11.6. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Jean Charlot, Cargador, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 8 x 6 3/8 inches (20.3 x 16.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.4.16. © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Jean Charlot, Luz, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 8 x 6 inches (20.3 x 15.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.4.12. © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Jean Charlot, Malinche, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 6 3/16 x 8 inches (15.7 x 20.3 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.4.15. © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Jean Charlot, Arches, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 8 x 6 inches (20.3 x 15.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.4.1. © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Jean Charlot, Plaza, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 6 x 8 inches (15.2 x 20.3 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.4.5. © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Jean Charlot, Sacrifice of Isaac, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 8 x 6 1/8 inches (20.3 x 15.6 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.4.9. © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Jean Charlot, The Rebozo, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 8 1/8 x 5 3/4 inches (20.6 x 14.6 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.4.2. © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Jean Charlot, Bathers, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 8 x 6 inches (20.3 x 15.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.4.7. © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Veracruz (Mexico), Seated nude man, 600–900 CE. Ceramic, 14 5/8 x 7 3/16 x 11 inches (37.2 x 18.3 x 28 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Dr. and Mrs. William Stein, 1979.21.1. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Jean Charlot, Tondo I, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 6 inches (15.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.4.6. © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Jean Charlot, Tondo III, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 5 5/16 x 5 1/2 inches (13.5 x 14 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.4.14. © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Jean Charlot, Woman Washing, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 8 x 6 inches (20.3 x 15.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.4.10. © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Jean Charlot, The Petate, 1933. Lithograph on paper, 6 x 8 1/4 inches (15.2 x 21 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Mr. Jack Lord, 1973.4.13. © The Jean Charlot Estate LLC. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.