José María Velasco: The Master of Mexican Landscapes

Early Steps and Landesio’s Influence

José María Velasco’s artistic journey began at the Real Academy of San Carlos in 1855. At the time, academic art focused mainly on the human figure. Defying this convention, Velasco turned to landscape painting, then seen as a minor genre, marking the first act of his artistic independence.

His teacher, the Italian painter Eugenio Landesio, played a decisive role in this choice. Landesio taught Velasco not only technique but also a structured way of seeing nature. Through his treatise, The Foundations of the Artist, Draftsman, and Painter (1866), he emphasized perspective, composition, and the poetic harmony of space. Guided by Landesio, Velasco learned to transform the Mexican landscape into more than just a view—into a symbol of identity and beauty, setting the foundation for his later masterpieces.

The Path to an Individual Style

Velasco’s transition toward his own style is clear in several key works. We see it in paintings like La Alameda de México (1866) and Cumbres de Maltrata (1875). Admittedly, these paintings still followed academic rules. However, they reveal his growing sensitivity to a unique light and atmosphere, which began to capture the essence of the Mexican high plateau. During this period, his color palette started to shift. He moved away from the earthy, reddish tones of his master, which felt more European, and began to embrace the clear blues and crystalline light of the Valley of Mexico.

Velasco started to apply Landesio’s complex theories about light. For instance, he explored the effect of a “projected light blaze” in relation to moonlight, as seen in The Great Comet of 1882. Crucially, through his own empirical observation he filtered these lessons. This was no longer a matter of simply reproducing a formula. Rather, he used it to interpret a specific reality at a particular moment. Thus, his training was far from a simple adoption of academicism. It was, in fact, a critical and creative dialogue with his teacher, which laid a firm foundation for his later creative breakthroughs.

The Monumental Conquest of the Valley of Mexico (1875–1901)

During the period from the mid-1870s to the end of the 19th century, José María Velasco established himself as the undisputed master of Mexican landscape painting. This was a period of artistic maturity, marked by growing international recognition. His paintings reached a new level of refinement while reflecting broader ideas shaping Mexican society at the time. They aligned with the Mexican liberal movement influenced by positivist thought, expressing faith in science, progress, and the harmony between nature and nation.

Velasco’s most significant work from this period is The Valley of Mexico (1877). This painting is not only his best-known piece but also a pivotal moment in 19th-century Mexican art. To create it, Velasco climbed the Sierra de Guadalupe in search of the perfect vantage point, carefully observing how light and distance shaped the vast landscape before him.

Technically, the painting is an absolute feat. In it, Velasco displays a masterful use of atmospheric perspective. This technique creates an illusion of depth and distance by adjusting the color and clarity of objects as they recede. As a result, the viewer gets a sensation of almost infinite vastness. For example, your gaze travels from the detailed foreground vegetation all the way to the distant Mexico City skyline, where the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl appear on the horizon.

The artist captures the light of the valley with remarkable precision, conveying both clarity and stillness. This approach marks changes in his formalism influenced by Landesio. In contrast, his teacher’s landscapes often favored warmer, more conventional tones rooted in European tradition. Velasco, however, applied a rich and realistic color palette, carefully capturing the specific light and atmosphere of the moment.

This painting is also a scientific document and shows Velasco’s extraordinary attention to detail. The artist depicts the mountains with geological precision. The botanical accuracy of the foreground flora and fauna is equally remarkable. We can clearly see the eagle, cacti, magueys, and xerophytic shrubs, all based on his careful studies. As such, the painting functions as an ecological record, capturing a valley before 20th-century urbanization transformed it forever. Consequently, it has become an invaluable source for today’s environmental historians.

Expanding the Pictorial Territory

With the success of The Valley of Mexico, Velasco undertook an almost cartographic project to capture the diversity and grandeur of the entire national territory. The major works from this period prove his incredible versatility.

Cathedral of Oaxaca (1887)

This canvas is an example of Velasco’s ability to combine monumental cathedral architecture with the surrounding landscape through precise perspective and careful observation. His attention to the Baroque façade reveals a deep interest in how light and texture work together within the emerging urban scene.

Velasco didn’t simply depict a building. By including nearby mountains, vegetation, and traces of everyday life, he linked the cathedral to Mexico’s broader identity. This approach was unusual in Mexican art at the time, when buildings were often portrayed as isolated monuments rather than as parts of a living environment.

The Metlac Ravine (1897)

This is considered the first painting in Mexico to depict a locomotive, reflecting the Porfirian ideal of progress at the dawn of the 20th century. However, Velasco’s decision to include a steam train carries additional meaning. Rather than simply celebrating industrial modernity, he integrates the train into the landscape as part of a larger harmony between nature and human invention. His approach contrasts with European artists like Turner or the Impressionists, who often depicted locomotives as symbols of speed and disruption. For Velasco, the train becomes a quiet presence—evidence of change, yet still rooted in the calm order of the Mexican valley.

The Metlac Ravine also creates a harmonious dialogue between human engineering and natural grandeur. The painting serves as a visual manifesto about Mexico’s changing landscape, showing how the expansion of railroads and industrial progress began to shape and connect distant regions of the country. Velasco captured a moment when technology was not only transforming the terrain but also redefining the concept of a unified national space.

Recognition and Leadership

After achieving international success, Velasco’s landscapes were chosen to represent Mexico at major exhibitions abroad. These included the World’s Fairs in Philadelphia (1876) and Paris (1889). There, they earned medals and critical acclaim.

His paintings became Mexico’s visual ambassadors to the world, showing the nation’s growing cultural and artistic sophistication. They reflected progress in science, industry, and technology, while also celebrating the country’s vast and monumental natural beauty. Velasco’s work reminded viewers that modernity and nature could coexist in the same image.

The Fruitful Dusk: The Master’s Intimate Gaze (1902–1912)

The final stage of José María Velasco’s life reveals a quiet but profound transformation in his art. This decade, which art historian Fausto Ramírez Rojas described as his “years of retreat” and “fruitful dusk,” was not a decline but a period of deep introspection. Velasco began to move away from the grandeur of his earlier nationalist landscapes, replacing it with a more personal and meditative vision. The landscape, once a stage for the nation’s identity, now became a mirror reflecting his own mortality and the fragile rhythms of nature.

Heart problems forced Velasco to resign from his position as professor at the Academy of San Carlos in 1902. Soon after, he withdrew to his home in Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo, where he continued painting until his death in 1912.

This last period of physical isolation reshaped his art. His palette became softer and more subdued, favoring grays, ochres, and pale blues that suggested melancholy. His brushwork also became looser, focusing less on sweeping panoramas and more on the intimate details of the landscape—skies, solitary trees, and distant light. In these late works, Velasco turned inward, painting not the Mexico of progress, but the Mexico of his memory.