Mariano Rodríguez (1912–1990) was a central figure in modern Cuban art, widely recognized for his expressive use of color and recurring symbolic motifs. Essentially self-taught he traveled in 1936 with the sculptor Alfredo Lozano to Mexico City, where he came into contact with the circle of Diego Rivera and studied under the painter Manuel Rodríguez Lozano. His own work developed and he held his first exhibition in 1943. Mariano emerged as part of Cuba’s rising vanguardia (avantgarde) alongside artists as Mario Carreño, Cundo Bermúdez, and René Portocarrero.

He participated in important exhibitions of that time, among them the landmark “Modern Cuban Painters“ at MoMA New York in 1944, in which his painting Guajiro con gallo was shown. Like Carreño and many other Cuban artists, Mariano traveled frequently between Havana and New York during the 1940s, and he held solo exhibitions at the Feigl Gallery, on Madison Avenue, in 1945, 1946, and 1951.

At the heart of his iconography is the rooster—one of his most enduring symbols. Bold and animated, it embodies vitality, pride, and masculine authority, strutting across the canvas with commanding presence.

Alongside this, Rodríguez developed the motif of the female figure, often associated with fertility and the natural world. His women are sensuous yet introspective, less objects than emotional anchors within the composition. Frequently placed in quiet dialogue with their surroundings, they appear grounded, almost inseparable from the earth itself.

By the 1970s, Rodríguez’s work evolved into more layered interior scenes in which fruit and plants gained prominence. In the 1972 work presented here, fruit suggests abundance and sensuality, while green foliage introduces a rhythmic, organic structure. These elements coexist with a passive female presence—depicted as an image within the image—while the rooster dominates the foreground. The result is a richly orchestrated composition that blurs the line between still life and narrative, fusing symbolism with everyday experience.

The painting offered in this auction comes from the estate of Ambassador Harald Edelstam (1913–1989), who served as Sweden’s ambassador to Chile from 1972 to 1973. It was presented to him in person in 1974 by Fidel Castro, the prime minister of Cuba, as a sign of gratitude for Edelstam’s active part in protecting the Cuban embassy in Santiago during the military coup in 1973. Ambassador Edelstam later recounted these events in a statement (a copy accompanies this lot).

In 2026, Bonhams New York highlighted the work of Marino Rodriguez along with the 16 Cuban artists who exhibited at MoMA in 1944. The exhibition at the newly opened Steinway House in New York served as both a retrospective and a tribute to the legendary 1944 exhibition “Modern Cuban Painters.”

Photo: Ambassador Harald Edelstam, his son Hans, and Fidel Castro, Havanna, 1974.