Julia Codesido

Julia Manuela Codesido Estenós (5 August 1883, Lima – 8 May 1979, Lima) was a Peruvian painter, one of the most significant representatives of the Peruvian plastic movement, popularly known as "indigenismo".

Life Julia Codesido was born in Lima on 5 August 1883. She was a daughter of the jurist and diplomat Bernardino Codesido Oyaque and Matilde Estenós Carreño. Codesido spent her childhood accompanied by her older sister Matilde and her younger brother Bernardino José. She studied at the Colegio San Pedro, located in the center of Lima, and finished her studies in 1899.

By 1919 she was at the National School of Fine Arts of Peru, in Daniel Hernández's workshop, and in 1922 she requested a transfer to the workshop of José Sabogal, who had been appointed assistant professor of painting in 1920. Upon entering the National School of Fine Arts (ENBA), Julia Codesido formed a quintet with Teresa Carvallo, Elena Izcue (painting), Carmen Saco (sculpture) and Beatriz Neumann (artistic photography) who became the representatives of the artistic outbreak of the first women to join and who would be part of the nascent National School of Fine Arts (ENBA).

Art After completing her studies in 1924, she held her first solo exhibition in the Alcedo National Music Academy hall in 1929. Julia Codesido was described as an artist with a "preference for the vernacular." Thus standing out because of her artistic nature and her ability to combine color and design in her expressive style. Two years later she showed her work at San Marcos University in Lima, Perú. In 1931, she was appointed professor of drawing and painting at the National School of Fine Arts of Peru after having been an assistant to Sabogal. Towards 1935, she left for Mexico, where she exhibited in the Gallery of Exhibitions of the Palace of Fine Arts, presented by David Alfaro Siqueiros. Codesido's paintings of The Market (La Feria) and Threshing in the Andes (La trill de los andes) were part of this exhibition.

In 1943, Codesido exhibited in the Latin-American Collection at the Museum of Modern Art.

Codesido returned to Paris in 1953 where she exhibited, at the "Petit Palais", together with the Bolivian artist Marina Núñez del Prado and the Brazilian sculptor Irene Arnau. The artist also participated in numerous group and individual exhibitions. In 1959, she exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art again.

In 1946 she was appointed a member of the Peruvian Art Institute, having as its main function to form the museum collection of popular art and crafts of the now known National Museum of Peruvian Culture, founded on the initiative of Luis E. Valcárcel.

Julia Codesido dedicated many years to investigating the roots of Peruvian culture, which were nuanced with various individual and collective collections in Peru and abroad, until she died on 8 May 1979. Museum of the National University of San Marcos, Lima:

Storm, ca. 1950. Oil on canvas. Indian. Lithography Market. Lithography

Awards and honors Codesido was awarded in 1976 with the National Prize of Culture of Peru.

A crater on the planet Mercury was named in her honor in November 2024.