The Rich - Remedios Varo
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Description
A satirical portrait by Surrealist artist Remedios Varo, featuring a figure adorned in excessive, fantastical ornamentation.
Remedios Varo, a Spanish-born artist who spent much of her career in Mexico, created this work in 1957. It belongs to a period where she explored themes of social critique, alchemy, and the occult through a highly individualised visual language. The painting depicts a figure in profile, adorned with excessive ornamentation that suggests a satirical take on material wealth and status.
The subject wears an elaborate, textured hat topped with a single feather, while their ears are exaggerated and pointed, reminiscent of fantastical or elven features. A veil partially obscures the face, and strings of beads drape across the head and neck. The figure is dressed in a dark, patterned garment with a fur-like collar. Varo uses a muted, earthy palette, which allows the subtle textures of the clothing and the fine details of the jewellery to emerge from the dark background.
Technically, the work demonstrates Varo's precise brushwork, a skill she honed through her interest in scientific illustration and technical drawing. The composition is static, focusing on the profile view to emphasise the costume and the psychological distance of the subject. By combining human features with strange, almost alien elements, Varo invites the viewer to consider the absurdity of the figure's opulence. The painting is a characteristic example of her ability to blend dreamlike imagery with a rigorous, almost clinical attention to detail. It avoids the chaotic spontaneity often associated with European surrealism, opting instead for a controlled, meditative approach to the canvas.
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Because every print is made to order, we don't offer change-of-mind returns, refunds or exchanges. If your order arrives faulty, damaged or incorrect, we'll replace it free of charge — just contact us within 48 hours of delivery. See our refunds page for full details.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
Care and materials
Specific Features
Every Solis piece is made to order with archival, gallery-quality materials built to last.
- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
- Multiple sizes and framing options available
- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
- Framed prints arrive ready to hang
Care & Cleaning
To keep your artwork looking its best:
- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
- Avoid prolonged direct sunlight
- Never use liquid cleaners on the print or canvas surface
- Keep in a dry, room-temperature space
- Handle prints with clean, dry hands
Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
The Rich - Remedios Varo
Artist Biography
Remedios Varo
She graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in 1930, one of the few women in her class. In Barcelona she fell in with the Surrealists and, through them, with the poet Benjamin Peret, who became her partner. When Paris fell, she was jailed on suspicion of espionage. After her release she and Peret boarded one of the last ships allowed to leave France, arriving in Mexico in 1941.
In Mexico City she became inseparable from the English Surrealist Leonora Carrington. Together with the photographer Kati Horna, the three were called the Three Witches. They attended meetings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky followers, studied alchemy and Jungian dream theory, and put ink in tapioca pearls to serve as caviar at dinner parties for Octavio Paz.
She did not paint prolifically until the last thirteen years of her life, once she was financially stable and free of wartime displacement. The paintings from this period are meticulous: tiny figures in architectural spaces that obey their own physics, conducting experiments with starlight or weaving the fabric of the universe from threads pulled out of the air.
Her posthumous retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City in 1971 drew more visitors than shows by Diego Rivera or David Alfaro Siqueiros. She had died of a heart attack in 1963, at fifty-four, at the peak of her working life.
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