Rosa Rolanda

Rosa Rolanda (Rosemonde Cowan; Rose Rolando; Mrs. Miguel Covarrubias; September 6, 1895 – March 25, 1970) was an American multidisciplinary artist, dancer, and choreographer.

Biography Rolanda was born in Azusa, California, in 1895. Her father, Henry Charles Cowan, was an engineer and her mother, Guadalupe Ruelas, was of Mexican descent.

Rolanda began her artistic career in New York in 1916, as a celebrated dancer in Broadway revues. Rolanda's debut performance was to Lee Shubert's Over the Top, which sparked a continued dance career throughout the 1920s. After a tour in Europe with the Ziegfeld Follies dance troupe, Rolanda performed in the musical Around the Town.

Soon after, while working on The Garrick Gaieties, Rolanda met Miguel Covarrubias on set. They began a romantic relationship in 1924, and in the following year the couple traveled to Mexico, where Rolanda began photography. Albums of her images were published in Covarrubias's best-selling books Island of Bali (1938) and Mexico South: Isthmus of Tehuantepec (1946),

She probably began painting around 1926. The majority of Rolanda's canvases depict colorful, folkloric scenes of children and festivals, portraits of friends such as the movie actresses Dolores del Río and María Félix, and self-portraits.

Rolanda and Covarrubias married in 1930, By that year, she and Covarrubias were separated and Rolanda was producing works such as Autorretrato (self-portrait), conveying her innermost turmoil onto canvas.

She died in 1970 in Mexico City, Mexico.

Filmography The Blue Bird (1918) Woman (1918)