Federico Cantú 1907-1989

The Stendahl Galleries

In 2011 the Stendahl Galleries of Art achieved a milestone: one hundred years of continuous operation.

Founder Earl L. Stendahl (1887-1966) came to Southern California from a small town in Wisconsin. Unschooled in the world of art or commerce, Stendahl began nurturing young Los Angeles artists by showing their work at his downtown restaurant, The Black Cat Café. Before long the still-young art dealer was putting on shows for Edgar Payne, Guy Rose, William Wendt, Nicolai Fechin, Joseph Kleitsch and other masters of the California Impressionist school at his gallery in The Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard. His clients included Hollywood celebrities, museums, educators, European emigres, politicians, even royalty.

Pioneer Stendahl next turned to the great names of European and revolutionary American and Latin American modern art: Matisse, Klee, Kandinsky, Chagall, Brancusi, Feitelson, Siqueiros, Rivera. Few remember that in 1939 Stendahl hosted one of only two non-museum exhibitions of Pablo Picasso's masterwork, Guernica, to benefit Spanish war orphans.

As early as 1935 Stendahl began promoting ancient artifacts from Mexico and Central America. Over time the Stendahl Galleries have become synonymous with Pre-Columbian art, nationally and internationally. Stendahl's first client for the material was noted collector Walter Arensberg, who lured Stendahl to his Hollywood neighborhood as a personal friend and dealer. The Stendahl Galleries expanded into the Arensberg estate in 1954. Stendahl had helped Walter and Louise amass what one art historian called "the most discriminating single group of twentieth century paintings and sculpture in existence."

Flight into Egypt' by Federico Cantú

Flight into Egypt' by Federico Cantú

The scene depicting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' by Federico Cantú is indebted to Albrecht Dürer’s work. Both works are characterised by a touching domesticity, showing the Holy Family tired after their long journey.

The flight into Egypt is a biblical event described in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 2:13-23), in which Joseph fled to Egypt with Mary and infant son Jesus after a visit by Magi because they learned that King Herod intended to kill the infants of that area. The episode is frequently shown in art, as the final episode of the Nativity of Jesus in art, and was a common component in cycles of the Life of the Virgin as well as the Life of Christ.

Federico Cantú 1907-1989

" Turkey -NY1939"

Wishing a delicious Thanksgiving feast to all! Enjoy Federico Cantú's

" Turkey -NY1939"

Federico & Gloria in USA

A passion for Mexican modernism: The Lewin Family Collection

Christies 2017

Masterworks from the personal collection of Bernard Lewin, a pioneer in the market for Mexican art, are offered in the Latin American Art sales on 22 & 23 November

For generations, the Lewin family of Palm Springs, California, has been passionately dedicated to the study, promotion and collecting of Latin American art. Their legacy began in 1954 when Bernard Lewin (1906-2003) saw his first painting by Mexican modernist Rufino Tamayo. From that chance encounter, Lewin went on to amass one of the largest personal collections of Mexican modernism in the United States and to introduce countless individuals to the artists he so loved through his eponymous galleries in Beverly Hills and Palm Springs. 

Lewin arrived in California in 1938 after fleeing Nazi Germany with his wife Edith (1911-1999) and their four-year-old son and only child Ralph. He began making a living for his family by moving furniture before moving on to buying and selling estates and eventually opening his own furniture store. 

Slowly he began to notice not only the furniture but also the fine art collections of his clients and was inspired to learn more. Determined to meet some of the artists he had come to admire and better familiarise himself with their work, Lewin made his first trip to Mexico in 1958. He visited the studio of  Federico Cantú and bought some Engravings , cavas and asks the artist to design the logo of the Gallery, also visit Diego Rivera and bought some of the deceased artist’s sketchbooks from the 1930s.

The Lewin Family Collection

Retrato de Gloria con paisaje

Federico Cantú 1907-1989

Oleo sobre Tela

Fascinated by Mexican art, Lewin eventually gave up the furniture business and established his art gallery in 1968 in Beverly Hills, where he championed the work of such luminaries as Rufino Tamayo, Federico Cantú, Ricardo Martinez, Alfredo Ramos Marinez, Jesús Guerrero Galvan Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Carlos Mérida, Francisco Zúñiga and many others now offered for sale at Christie’s.

LACMA The Lewin Family Collection  mexican-mural-study-federico-cantú

With Lewins’ generous gift, LACMA instantly became the steward for one of the most comprehensive collections of Mexican modernism in the country

Today the Cantú Y de Teresa Art Collection holds the largest collection of portraits dedicated to the figure of Gloria, this collection includes ink, canvas, sculpture and engraving

All of them have been exhibited in the main museums in America, museums such as: Philadelphia Museum, Santa Barbara Museum, MOMA, Metropolitan Museum, Art Club of Chicago, Palace of Fine Arts Museum, MAM