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Costumbrismo (in Catalan: costumisme; sometimes anglicized as costumbrism, with the adjectival form costumbrist) is the literary or pictorial interpretation of local everyday life, mannerisms, and customs, primarily in the Hispanic scene, and particularly in the 19th century, i.e. a localized branch of genre painting. Costumbrismo is related both to artistic realism and to Romanticism, sharing the Romantic interest in expression as against simple representation and the romantic and realist focus on precise representation of particular times and places, rather than of humanity in the abstract.José Escobar, Costumbrismo entre Romanticismo y Realismo, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel Cervantes. Accessed online 2010-01-22.Antonio Reina Palazón, El Costumbrismo en la Pintura Sevillana del Siglo XIX , Biblioteca Virtual Miguel Cervantes. Accessed online 2010-01-22. It is often satiric and even moralizing, but unlike mainstream realism does not usually offer or even imply any particular analysis of the society it depicts. When not satiric, its approach to quaint folklore detail often has a romanticizing aspect.
Costumbrismo can be found in any of the visual or literary arts; by extension, the term can also be applied to certain approaches to collecting folkloric objects, as well. Originally found in short essays and later in novels, costumbrismo is often found in the of the 19th century, especially in the género chico. Costumbrista museums deal with folklore and local art and costumbrista festivals celebrate local customs and artisans and their work.
Although initially associated with Spain in the late 18th and 19th century, costumbrismo expanded to the Americas and set roots in the Spanish-speaking portions of the Americas, incorporating indigenous elements. Juan López Morillas summed up the appeal of costumbrismo for writing about Latin American society as follows: the costumbristas' "preoccupation with minute detail, local color, the picturesque, and their concern with matters of style is frequently no more than a subterfuge. Astonished by the contradictions observed around them, incapable of clearly understanding the tumult of the modern world, these writers sought refuge in the particular, the trivial or the ephemeral."Juan López Morillas, El Krausismo español (1980), p. 129, quoted by Enrique Pupo-Walker, "The brief narrative in Spanish America 1835–1915", 490:535 in Roberto González Echevarría, Enrique Pupo-Walker, The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature: Discovery to modernism, Cambridge University Press, 1996, . p. 491 accessed on Google Books.
Sebastián de Miñano y Bedoya (1779–1845) is considered by some a costumbrista, although arguably his writing is too political to properly fit the genre. According to Andrés Soria, the first incontestable costumbristas are the anonymous and pseudonymous contributors to La Minerva (1817), El Correo Literario y Mercantil (1823–33) and El Censor (1820–23). Later come the major figures of literary costumbrismo: Serafín Estébanez Calderón (1799–1867), Ramón de Mesonero Romanos (1803–82), and Mariano José de Larra (1809–37) who sometimes wrote under the pseudonym "Fígaro". Estébanez Calderón (who originally wrote for the abovementioned Correo Literario y Mercantil) looked for a "genuine" and picturesque Spain in the recent past of particular regions; Mesonero Romanos was a careful observer of the Madrid of his time, especially of the middle classes; Larra, according to José Ramón Lomba Pedraja, arguably transcended his genre, using the form of costumbrismo for political and psychological ideas. An afrancesado—a liberalism child of the Enlightenment—he was not particularly enamored of the Spanish society that he nonetheless observed minutely.
Costumbrismo was by no means without foreign influences. The work of Joseph Addison and Richard Steele nearly a century earlier in The Spectator had influenced French writers, who in turn influenced the costumbristas. Furthermore, Addison and Steele's own work was translated into Spanish in the early 19th century, and Mesonero Romanos, at least, had read it in French. Still, an even stronger influence came by way of Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy (whose work appeared in translation in La Minerva and El Censor), Louis-Sébastien Mercier (especially for Le Tableau de Paris, 1781–88), Charles Joseph Colnet Du Ravel, and Georges Touchard-Lafosse. In addition, there were the travelogues such as Richard Ford's A Handbook for Travellers in Spain, written by various foreigners who had visited Spain and, in painting, the foreign artists (especially, David Roberts) who had settled for a time especially in Seville and Granada and drew or painted local subjects.
While Estébanez Calderón, Mesonero Romanos, and (insofar as he fits the genre) Larra were the major costumbrista writers, many other Spanish writers of the 19th century devoted all or part of their careers to costumbrismo. Antonio María Segovia (1808–74), who mainly wrote pseudonymously as "El Estudiante" and who founded the satiric-literary magazine El Cócora;Ángeles Ezama Gil, José Enrique Serrano Asenjo (editors), Juan Valera, Correspondencia, Vol. 2: Años 1862-1875, Nueva biblioteca de erudición y crítica, Editorial Castalia, 2002, . p. 39. Available online on Google Books. his collaborator Santos López Pelegrín (1801–46), "Abenámar"; many early contributors to Madrid's Semanario Pintoresco Español (1836-57 Ficha de publicación periódica: Semanario pintoresco español, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. Accessed online 2010-01-20.), Spain's first illustrated magazine; and such lesser lights as Antonio Neira de Mosquera (1818–53), "El Doctor Malatesta" ( Las ferias de Madrid, 1845); Clemente Díaz, with whom costumbrismo took a turn toward the rural; Vicente de la Fuente (1817–89), portraying the lives of bookish students (in between writing serious histories); José Giménez Serrano, portraying a romantic Andalusia; Enrique Gil y Carrasco, a CarlismRicardo Gullón, La vida breve de Ricardo Gil, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel Cervantes. Accessed online 2010-01-20. from Villafranca del Bierzo, friend of Alexander von Humboldt, and contributor to the Semanario Pintoresco Español; Enrique Gil y Carrasco, Biografías y Vidas. Accessed online 2010-01-20. and many other regionalists around Spain.
A collective and hence, necessarily, uneven anthology of "types", Los españoles… was a mixture of verse and prose, and of writers and artists from various generations. Illustrators included Leonardo Alenza (1807–45), Fernando Miranda y Casellas, Francisco Lameyer (1825–1877), Vicente Urrabieta y Ortiz, and Calixto Ortega. The writers included Mesonero and Estébanez as well as various less costumbrista writers and many not usually associated with the genre, such as Gabriel García Tassara (1817–75) or the conservative politician Francisco Navarro Villoslada (1818–95). Andrés Soria remarks that, except for the Andalusian "types", everything was from the point of view of Madrid. Unlike later costumbrismo, the focus remained firmly on the present day. In some ways, the omissions are as interesting as the inclusions: no direct representation of the aristocracy, of prominent businessmen, of the high clergy, or of the army, and except for the "popular" classes, the writing is a bit circumspect and cautious. Still, the material is strong on ethnological, folkloric, and linguistic detail.
In an epilogue to Los españoles…, "Contrastes. Tipos perdidos, 1825, Tipos hallados, 1845" ("Contrasts. Types lost, 1825, types found, 1845"), Mesonero on the one hand showed that the genre, in its original terms, was played out, and on the other laid the ground for future costumbrismo: new "types" would always arise, and many places remained to be written about in this fashion. The book had many descendants, and a major reissue in 1871. A particularly strong current came out of Barcelona: for example, José M. de Freixas's Enciclopedia de tipos vulgares y costumbres de Barcelona ("Encyclopedia of vulgar types and customs of Barcelona", 1844) illustrated by Servat,Josep Izquierdo, Goya en tiempos de guerrilla artística, Libro de Notas, 2008-07-25. Accessed online 2010-01-20. and El libro Verde de Barcelona ("The Green Book of Barcelona", 1848) by "José y Juan" (José de Majarrés and Juan Cortada y Sala. The very title of Los valencianos pintados por sí mismos (Valencia 1859) gave a nod of the hat to the earlier work,
A revival of collective works of costumbrismo in the time of the First Spanish Republic saw the reissue of Los españoles… (1872), as well as the publication of Los españoles de hogaño ("The Spanish these days", 1872), focused on Madrid, and the vast undertaking Las mujeres españolas, portuguesas y americanas… ("Spanish, Portuguese, and American Women…", published in Madrid, Havana, and Buenos Aires in 1872–1873 and 1876). A very nice online version of volume 3 of Las mujeres… can be found on the site of Rice University as part of the Rice Digital Scholarship Archive. Also from this time was the satiric Madrid por dentro y por fuera ("Madrid from inside and outside, 1873) by Manuel del Palacio (1831–1906).María de los Ángeles Ayala, Una docena de cuentos, primera recopilación de cuentos de Narciso Campillo y Correa, Scriptura (University of Lleida), ISSN 1130-961X, Vol. 16, Number 16, 2001, 133:148. Accessed online 2010-01-20. p. 148, n. 39 (p. 16 of PDF).
Carlos Frontaura carried on costumbrismo in Madrid with Las tiendas ("Shops", 1886) and "Tipos madrileños" ("Madrid types", 1888). Ramón de Navarrete (1822–1897) writing variously as or "Asmodeo" (after Asmodeus, king of the demons), broke with the history of the genre by writing of the upper classes in Madrid during the Restoration, as in his Sueños y realidades ("Dreams and realities, 1878). Enrique Sepúlveda wrote about both Madrid and Barcelona, Narcís Oller (1846–1930) about Barcelona, and Sabino de Goicoechea (1826–1901), known as "Argos", about the Basque Country. Antiguo edificio del Banco de España, Bilbao magazine, 2005-04, p. 8. Accessed online 2010-01-20. Galicia was represented by the collective work El álbum de Galicia. Tipos, costumbres y leyendas ("The album of Galicia. Types, customs and legends", 1897).
Eugenio de Ochoa (1815–72) carried costumbrismo in a different direction. Born in the Basque country Eugenio de Ochoa, Biografías y Vidas. Accessed online 2010-01-20. and moving often between Spain and France, his 1860 book Museo de las familias. París, Londres y Madrid ("Museum of families. Paris, London, Madrid") created a sort of cosmopolitan costumbrismo.
Elements of costumbrismo, or even entire works in the genre, can be found among major Spanish writers of the 20th century, though to a lesser extent. Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) worked in the genre for De mi país ("Of my country", 1903) and some stories such as "Solitaña" in of El espejo de la muerte ("The Mirror of Death", 1913), as did Pío Baroja with Vitrina pintoresca ("Picturesque showcase", 1935) and in passages of his novels set in the Basque Country. Azorín (José Augusto Trinidad Martínez Ruíz, 1873–1967) often wrote in this genre; one could comb the works of Ramón Gómez de la Serna (1888–1963) and Camilo José Cela (1916–2002) and find many passages that could come straight from a work of costumbrismo. Although taken as a whole these writers are clearly not costumbristas, they use the costumbrista style to evoke surviving remnants of Spain's past.
In the course of the century, more and more Spanish regions asserted their particularity, allowing this now established technique of writing to be given new scope. In other regions—Madrid, Andalusia— costumbrismo itself had become part of the region's identity. The magazine España, founded 1915, wrote about some new "types": the indolent golfo; the lower class señorito chulo with his airs and exaggerated fashions; the albañil or construction worker, but with far less sympathy than costumbristas in the previous century had portrayed their predecessors. Other "types" were those who were a caricature of times past: el erudito, with his vast but pointless book-learning, or El poeta de juegos florales ("the poet of floral games").
Andrés Soria describes 20th century regional costumbrismo as more serious, less picturesque, and more poetic than in the 19th century. Among his many examples of the 20th century continuation of costumbrismo are Santiago Rusiñol (1861–1931), writing in Catalan language about Catalonia and Mallorca; numerous chroniclers of the Basque Country: José María Salaverría (1873–1940), Ricardo Baroja (1871–1953), Dionisio de Azkue ("Dunixi"), José María Iribarren (1906–1971), and, as mentioned above, Pío Baroja; Vicente Blasco Ibáñez (1867–1928) writing about Valencia; and Vicente Medina Tomás (1866–1937), writing about Murcia.
A strong current of costumbrismo continued in 20th-century Madrid, including in poetry (Antonio Casero, 1874–1936) and theatre (José López Silva, 1860–1925; Carlos Arniches Barreda, 1866–1943). Other writers who continued the tradition were Eusebio Blasco (1844–1903), Pedro de Répide (1882–1947), Emiliano Ramírez Ángel (1883–1928), Luis Bello (1872–1935), and Federico Carlos Sainz de Robles (1899–1983). Similarly, 20th century Andalusia saw work by José Nogales (1860?–1908), Salvador Rueda (1857–1933), Arturo Reyes (1864–1913), José Mas y Laglera (1885–1940), Ángel Cruz Rueda (1888–1961), and Antonio Alcalá Venceslada (1883–1955).
Romantic Andalusian costumbrismo ( costumbrismo andaluz) follows in the footsteps of two painters of the School of Cádiz, Juan Rodríguez y Jiménez, "el Panadero" ("the Baker", 1765–1830) and Joaquín Manuel Fernández Cruzado (1781–1856), both associated with Romanticism. The trend was continued by the School of Seville, in a city much more on the path of a foreign clientele. The founding figure was José Domínguez Bécquer (1805–41), father of the poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (see above) and painter Valeriano Bécquer (1833–70), who moved to Madrid. Domínguez Bécquer's influence came as an art teacher, as well as an artist. His student and cousin Joaquín Domínguez Bécquer (1817–79) was known for his acute observation of light and atmosphere. Another of José Domínguez Bécquer's students, the bold and forceful Manuel Rodríguez de Guzmán (1818–67), may have been the genre's strongest painter.
Other important early figures were Antonio Cabral Bejarano (1788–1861), best known for paintings of individuals theatrically posed against rural backgrounds, and an atmosphere reminiscent of Murillo, and José Roldán (1808–71), also very influenced by Murillo, known especially as a painter of children and urchins. One of Cabral Bejarano's sons, Manuel Cabral Bejarano (1827–91) began as a costumbrista, but eventually became more of a realist. Another son, Francisco Cabral Bejarano (1824–90), also painted in the genre.
Other painters of the School of Seville were Andrés Cortés (1810–79), Rafael García Hispaleto (1833–54), Francisco Ramos, and Joaquín Díez; history painter José María Rodríguez de Losada (1826–96); and portraitist José María Romero (1815–80).
Typical subject matter included (lower class Dandy) and their female equivalents, horsemen, bandits and smugglers, street urchins and beggars, Gypsies, traditional architecture, fiestas, and religious processions such as Holy Week in Seville.
The School of Madrid was united less by a common visual style than by an attitude, and by the influence of Goya rather than Murillo. Notable in this school were Leonardo Alenza and Lameyer, both contributors to Los españoles pintados por sí mismos. Alenza, in particular, showed a strong influence from the Flanders painters as well as from Goya. A fine portraitist who tended to take his subjects from among the common people, in some ways he epitomizes the difference between the School of Madrid and that of Seville. For him the "official" Romanticism was a topic to satirize, as in his series of paintings Suicidios románticos ("Romantic suicides").
Probably foremost in the School of Madrid was Eugenio Lucas Velázquez (1817–70). An artistic successor to Goya (though a more erratic painter than the master), Lucas Velázquez's work ranged from bullfighting scenes to Orientalism to scenes of witchcraft. His son Eugenio Lucas Villamil (1858–1918) and his students Paulino de la Linde (1837-?) and José Martínez Victoria followed in his tracks; he was also a strong influence on Antonio Pérez Rubio (1822–88) and Ángel Lizcano Monedero (1846–1929).
José Elbo (1804–44) was at least strongly akin to the School of Madrid. Although born in Úbeda in the Andalusian province of Jaén, Elbo studied painting in Madrid under José Aparicio (1773–1838), and was influenced by Goya; he was also influenced by the equivalents of costumbrismo. His painting is rife with social criticism, and often angrily populist.
Also in Madrid, but not really part of the School of Madrid, was Valeriano Bécquer (transplanted son of José Domínguez Bécquer). Although also influenced by Goya (and by Diego Velázquez), his work in Madrid did partake of some of the socially critical aspects of the other painters of that city, but not of the satiric aspects: his portraits of common people emphasize their dignity, seldom their foibles.
The dark vision of 20th-century Madrid painter José Gutiérrez Solana (1886–1945) was influenced by costumbrismo and also directly by the Black Paintings of Goya that had so influenced the costumbristas.
Strong aspects of costumbrismo can be seen in the novels and other works of Alberto Blest Gana (1830–1920). There are many costumbrista passages in the works of Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna (1831–86) and Daniel Barros Grez(1833–1904); Román Vial (1833–1896) entitled one of his books Costumbres chilenas; Zorobabel Rodríguez (1839–1901), Moisés Vargas (1843–98), Arturo Givovich (1855–1905), Daniel Riquelme (1854–1912), Senén Palacios (1858–1927), Egidio Poblete (1868–1940) all wrote in the mode at times. Costumbrismo figures particularly heavily in stage comedies: El patio de los Tribunales ("The courtyard of the tribunals of", by Valentín Murillo (1841–1896); Don Lucas Gómez, by Mateo Martínez Quevedo (1848–1923); Chincol en sartén ("A sparrow in the pan") and En la puerta del horno ("In the gate of horn"), by Antonio Espiñeira (1855–1907); La canción rota ("The broken song"), by Antonio Acevedo Hernández (1886–1962); Pueblecito ("Little town") by Armando Moock (1894–1942). In prose, costumbrismo mixes eventually into realism, with Manuel J. Ortiz (1870–1945) and Joaquín Díaz García (1877–1921) as important realists with costumbrista aspects.
Colombia can also claim a particularly rich tradition of costumbrismo in the 19th century and into the 20th: José Manuel Groot (1800–78); novelists Eugenio Díaz (1803–65), José Manuel Marroquín (1827–1908), and José María Vergara y Vergara (1831–72), all of whom collaborated on the magazine El Mosaico, la revista bogotana del costumbrismo (1858–71); Luis Segundo Silvestre (1838–87); and Jorge Isaacs (1837–95), whose sole novel María was praised by Alfonso M. Escudero as the greatest Spanish-language romantic novel.
Other Colombian costumbristas are José Caycedo Rojas (1816–1897), Juan de Dios Restrepo (1823–94), Gregorio Gutiérrez González (1826–72), Ricardo Carrasquilla (1827–86), Camilo A. Echeverri (1827–87), Manuel Pombo (1827–98), José David Guarín (1830–90), Ricardo Silva (1836–87), José María Cordovez Moure (1835–1918), Rafael María Camargo (1858–1926; wrote under the pseudonym Fermín de Pimentel y Vargas), and Tomás Carrasquilla (1858–1940).
José Victoriano Betancourt (1813–75) was patron to many intellectuals in 1860s Havana; he later went into exile in Mexico. He is best remembered today as a costumbrista writer, as is another Betancourt, José Ramón Betancourt (1823–90), author of Una feria de caridad en 183… (ellipses in original title), set in Camagüey in the late 1830s.José Ramón Betancourt, Una feria de caridad en 183…, Third Edition, Barcelona, 1885. Online at Google Books. Accessed 2010-01-21; some pages are only partly legible.
Ricardo Palma (1833–1919), best known for the multi-volume Tradiciones peruanas, was a man of letters, a former liberal politician and later the director of the National Library of Peru, who rebuilt the collection of that library after the War of the Pacific. He referred to his works in this mode as tradiciones, rather than costumbrismo.Christopher Conway, "Chronology of Ricardo Palma", p. xv.–xvii. of Helen Lane's translation of Tradiciones peruanas, Peruvian Traditions, Library of Latin America, Oxford University Press US, 2004, . Available online on Google Books.
Other Peruvian costumbristas are satirist and verse writer Pedro Paz Soldán y Unanue (1839–1895), Abelardo M. Gamarra (1850–1924), and the nostalgic José Gálvez (1885–1957).
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