José Miguel Covarrubias
(1904-1957)

Think that you may own a painting or drawing by Covarrubias? We authenticate, appraise, research and issue Certificates of Authenticity (COA) and provide consultations for all paintings and drawings by Covarrubias.

Covarrubias did illustrations for The Heritage Press including Uncle Tom's Cabin, Green Mansions, Herman Melville's Typee, and Pearl Buck's All Men Are Brothers. Covarrubias also collaborated with the Austrian/Mexican artist Wolfgang Paalen's for a journal named Dyn in the 1940s.

Covarrubias not only illustrated, but also worked as a theatre designer. Covarrubias worked on the Parisian hit, La Revue Negre starring Josephine Baker, Androcles and the Lion, The Four Over Thebes.

Covarrubias fell in love on a theatre set with a woman named Rosa. The couple travelled extensively, becoming friends with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.

Covarrubias started to exhibit internationally in Europe, Mexico and the United States. Covarrubias travelled with his wife Rosa to Bali with National Art Directors' Medal prize money, and again as a Guggenheim Fellow. Covarrubias’s documentation of his travel to Southeast Asia led to a 1930s “Bali craze” in New York.

Covarrubias and Rosa spent much of their time in Mexico City, hosting celebrity visitors they had met during their travels. Covarrubias was a professor of ethnology at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia and was a director at the National Palace of Fine Arts. Covarrubias added the Academy of Dance, inviting José Limón from the New York Dance Academy.

Covarrubias is known for his published illustrations, drawings and paintings. Do you think you own a Miguel Covarrubias? Contact us. We are the Miguel Covarrubias experts.