A man executed by garroting in the town square at Mixalco
ca. 1880–1910
Medium
Zincograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 3 7/16 × 5 11/16 in. (8.8 × 14.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Jean Charlot, 1930
Accession Number
30.82.89
Tags
Art Historical Context
José Guadalupe Posada, a pioneering Mexican printmaker (1852–1913), captured the raw drama of everyday life and sensational events in his prolific zincographs—relief prints etched on zinc plates for affordable, high-volume reproduction in newspapers and broadsides. Created around 1880–1910, *A Man Executed by Garroting in the Town Square at Mixco* depicts a public execution by strangulation, a grim punishment still practiced in parts of Latin America during this era. The small-scale sheet (3 7/16 × 5 11/16 in.) crowds with onlookers, emphasizing the spectacle's communal horror amid a watchful ...
About the Artist
José Guadalupe Posada · 1852–1913
José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) was a Mexican printmaker and engraver who revolutionized popular art and created some of the most iconic images in Mexican culture. Working primarily with publisher Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, he produced over 20,000 images during his career—inexpensive broadsheets sold for a penny on colored paper that made his art accessible to even the poorest workers. He transform...