A man grabbing a woman by her sleeve and stabbing her, from a broadside entitled 'The murder of Leandra Martinez by her brother, Manuel'
Medium
Type-metal engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 5 5/8 × 7 7/8 in. (14.3 × 20 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Jean Charlot, 1930
Accession Number
30.82.92
Tags
Art Historical Context
José Guadalupe Posada’s 1891 type-metal engraving captures a harrowing moment of violence: a man a woman by the sleeve he stabs her Created as an illustration for broadside “The murder of Leandra Martinez by her brother, Manuel,” the print distills a sensational crime into a compact, dramatic scene. Posada, a Mexican graphic artist of the nineteenth century, specialized in such affordable sheets that brought news, gossip, and moral tales to a wide public. The medium itself is central to the work’s power. Type-metal engraving allowed Posada to produce bold, high-contrast images quickly and ine...
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...