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Covarrubias was a Mexican painter and illustrator known for his popular caricatures. Covarrubias moved to New York City at the age of nineteen with a grant from the Mexican government. Covarrubias spoke little English but had incredible talent. In New York Covarrubias was introduced to the circle of literary and cultural elite. Before long, Covarrubias was an illustrator for several magazines including Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.

Al Capone & Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, 1932

Covarrubias often went to jazz shows in Harlem with friends including Eugene O’Neill and Nickolas Muray, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes and W.C. Handy. Covarrubias made countless caricatures of the jazz scene printed in Vanity Fair. Covarrubias best captured the energy of the Harlem Renaissance in his book, Negro Drawings. Covarrubias did not consider his work to be caricatures, but serious studies of his contemporaries.

Ex-King Alfonso & James J. Walker, 1932

Covarrubias did illustrations for The Heritage Press including Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Green Mansions, Herman Melville’s Typee, and Pearl Buck’s All Men Are Brothers. Covarrubias also collaborated with the Austrian/Mexican artist Wolfgang Paalen’s for a journal named Dyn in the 1940s.

Arthur Brisbone & the Sphinx, 1933

Covarrubias not only illustrated, but also worked as a theatre designer. Covarrubias worked on the Parisian hit, La Revue Negre starring Josephine Baker, Androcles and the Lion, The Four Over Thebes.

Covarrubias fell in love on a theatre set with a woman named Rosa. The couple travelled extensively, becoming friends with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.

Admiral Richard E. Byrd, 1934

Covarrubias started to exhibit internationally in Europe, Mexico and the United States. Covarrubias travelled with his wife Rosa to Bali with National Art Directors’ Medal prize money, and again as a Guggenheim Fellow. Covarrubias’s documentation of his travel to Southeast Asia led to a 1930s “Bali craze” in New York.

Self-Portrait as Olmec

Covarrubias and Rosa spent much of their time in Mexico City, hosting celebrity visitors they had met during their travels. Covarrubias was a professor of ethnology at the Escuela Nacional de Anthropology Historia and was a director at the National Palace of Fine Arts. Covarrubias added the Academy of Dance, inviting Jose Limon from the New York Dance Academy.

Covarrubias is known for his published illustrations, drawings and paintings. Do you think you own a Miguel Covarrubias? Contact us. We are the Miguel Covarrubias experts.