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Photo, Print, Drawing View of the Caquetá River near the Port of Descansé, Caquetá Territory. Vista del Caquetá, frente al puerto de Descanse : Territorio del Caquetá

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About this Item

Title

  • View of the Caquetá River near the Port of Descansé, Caquetá Territory.

Other Title

  • Vista del Caquetá, frente al puerto de Descanse : Territorio del Caquetá

Summary

  • This watercolor by Manuel María Paz (1820-1902) shows a party of Amerindians crossing the Caquetá River on a flat-bottomed boat, while two others, perhaps fishermen, are busy on the bank. The Caquetá River rises in fertile, mountainous southwestern Colombia and becomes a major waterway as it flows east across the country's vast plains. In Brazil, where it is called the Japurá, it ultimately joins the Amazon. The region of Caquetá enjoyed special territorial status at times in the 1840s and 1850s. The watercolor is typical of Paz's work, which captured the diversity of the population of Colombia and depicted the daily activities and traditional customs of the country's different ethnic, racial, and social groups. Paz was born in Almaguer in the province of Cauca. He joined the Colombian army at a young age and showed exceptional skills as a cartographer and painter. In 1853 he took over the role of draftsman of the Comisión Corográfica (Chorographic Commission) formerly held by Henry Price (1819--63). The commission, which began work in 1850, was tasked with studying the geography, cartography, natural resources, natural history, regional culture, and agriculture of the Republic of New Granada (present-day Colombia and Panama). Paz worked under Agustín Codazzi (1793--1859), the Italian-born geographer and engineer who co-founded and directed the commission. In 1859, at Codazzi's death, Paz was among the collaborators who took on the task of reviewing, completing, and publishing the work that the Comisión Corográfica had undertaken since 1850. As a draftsman, Paz executed watercolors and drawings that were very exact and strove to represent the places and people of Colombia in a naturalistic and objective style. These pictures constitute invaluable documentary records for the history and culture of Colombia. They also provided information pertinent to drawing up the maps that were one of the main objectives of the Comisión Corográfica. More than 90 paintings by Paz are preserved at the National Library of Colombia.

Names

  • Colombia. Comisión Corográfica Sponsor.
  • Paz, Manuel María, 1820-1902 Artist.

Created / Published

  • [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 1857.

Headings

  • -  Colombia--Cauca--Descansé
  • -  1857
  • -  Boats
  • -  Expeditions and surveys
  • -  Indians of South America
  • -  Indigenous peoples
  • -  Regional Memory of the World Register, Scientific Memory of Andean America
  • -  Rivers

Notes

  • -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
  • -  Original resource extent: Watercolor on paper ; 25 x 32 centimeters.
  • -  Original resource at: National Library of Colombia.
  • -  Content in Spanish.
  • -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Medium

  • 1 online resource.

Source Collection

  • Colección Comisión Corográfica

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021670092

Online Format

  • compressed data
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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The Library asks that researchers approach the materials in this collection with respect for the culture and sensibilities of the people whose lives, ideas, and creativity are documented here.

Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Colombia. Comisión Corográfica Sponsor, and Manuel María Paz. View of the Caquetá River near the Port of Descansé, Caquetá Territory. Descansé Colombia Cauca, 1857. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021670092/.

APA citation style:

Colombia. Comisión Corográfica Sponsor & Paz, M. M. (1857) View of the Caquetá River near the Port of Descansé, Caquetá Territory. Descansé Colombia Cauca, 1857. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021670092/.

MLA citation style:

Colombia. Comisión Corográfica Sponsor, and Manuel María Paz. View of the Caquetá River near the Port of Descansé, Caquetá Territory. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021670092/>.