Two articles appeared in the September 20 edition of the newspaper El Tiempo pursuant to the death of Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara Quijano Montero (1878–1953). The first was written by artist Dolcey Vergara, director of the Escuela de Bellas Artes of Bogotá at the time; and this one, which is one of the few known writings by artist Miguel Díaz Vargas (1886–1956). In it, Díaz Vargas not only offers an overview of Alcántara Quijano Montero’s artistic career and an account of the origin of his work, but also discusses the founding of the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Colombia in 1920, whose activities he participated in alongside Alcántara Quijano Montero, Domingo Moreno Otero (1882–1948), Coriolano Leudo Obando (1886–1957), Ricardo Borrero Álvarez (1874–1931), and Ricardo Gómez Campuzano (1891–1981).
Like Dionisio Cortés (1872–1934) and Andrés de Santamaría (1860–1945), Alcántara Quijano Montero made commemorative historical works at the turn of the century in keeping with a nationalist spirit heightened by the celebration of Colombia’s first one hundred years of independence (1919). After a spell at the Escuela de Bellas Artes of Bogotá, Alcántara Quijano Montero traveled to Spain in 1916, studying at the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid. It was there that he came into contact with neoclassical works by José de Madrazo (1781–1859) and romantic works by Mariano Fortuny (1838–1874) on whose art he based his own production when he returned to Colombia.
In one of the few texts that discusses the activities of the Círculo de Bellas Artes, Díaz Vargas describes that group’s organization and activities, as well as the debates it witnessed. He mentions the importance of outdoor landscape painting at the time.