Botero Sold His First Painting for Two Packs of Cigarettes

Botero Sold His First Painting for Two Packs of Cigarettes: Now It's Up for Auction in Bogotá
Long before becoming one of the world's most renowned Latin American artists, Fernando Botero sold his first painting for two packs of cigarettes. More than seven decades later, and almost three years after his death, that youthful watercolor is returning to the art market in an auction in Bogotá.

The work, titled "The Prayer" and created in 1949, is considered the first piece Botero sold in his career and is part of an auction organized by Bogotá Auctions on May 21, which will also feature more than 120 pieces of modern and contemporary Colombian and Latin American art.

According to the auction house, the watercolor belongs to the Colombian artist's formative period. "In this piece, the search for volume that would characterize Botero's later work is not yet evident," the auction house notes.

The painting depicts an elderly peasant praying, with his hands clasped near his mouth and his eyes closed. Behind him, a woman shelters a child while gazing at the sky with a look filled with fear and dread.
Botero painted the work just a year after the assassination of Colombian liberal leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, a crime that unleashed a wave of political violence in Colombia. At the time, the artist was still a teenager of about 17 and far from the international recognition he would achieve decades later with his monumental figures and exaggerated volumes.

The piece was then exchanged with Efrén Ossa, considered a pioneer of insurance law in Colombia. This anecdote contrasts sharply with the value Botero's work has reached in the international art market, where his paintings and sculptures have sold for millions of dollars.

The auction will also include the oil on canvas 'Girl with Flowers' (1960), belonging to a transitional period toward the style that would ultimately define the Colombian artist.

In addition, works by other prominent names in Latin American art will be featured, including Alejandro Obregón, Débora Arango, Beatriz González, Luis Caballero, Ana Mercedes Hoyos, and Óscar Muñoz.

The Colombian painter and sculptor Fernando Botero, who died in 2023 at the age of 91, was one of the most influential and recognizable Latin American artists of the last century.