Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art

This exhibition highlights two popular genres of 19th-century Mexican painting commemorating family members who no longer reside in the household— offering them a lasting presence in the home. The first intimately portrays deceased individuals in likenesses imbued with grief and tender remembrance. The second genre is the uniquely Mexican monja Coronado or “crowned nun” portrait. Images of flowers adorned Brides of Christ were commissioned by the families of women who took Catholic ecclesiastical vows and permanently embarked on cloistered lives.