Angel Della Valle - A Family Of Andean Strawmen

A family of Andean strawmen

Oil on canvas, 180 x 135 cm
Signed and located bottom left: "A. Valle Bs Ays".


Belonging to the so-called 'Generation of the Eighties', i.e. the children of Italian immigrants who arrived in Buenos Aires around 1840, Ángel Della Valle manifested artistic talents as a boy.
The fact that he belonged to two places, Italy and Argentina, as well as the traveller painter's vein, became apparent around the age of 20: in 1875, he left for Florence to study at the Accademia. 
After successfully participating in the Exposición Continental of 1882 with some romantic works, he returned to Buenos Aires the following year. Della Valle's decisive maturation was marked by the execution of the large canvas La vuelta del malón of 1892, which was received as the first masterpiece of national art. His sensitivity to local culture is revealed in the narration of everyday Argentine life, from the adventures of the wandering gauchos and their agile horses, to the Indians' rides in the desert, to the depiction of the vast pampas or the Andean territories. In the canvas depicting the Andean family of strawmen, Della Valle offers an unusual subject with an ethnographic flavour.