Businessman, historian, and critic Juan Friede wrote this book on painter Carlos Correa in 1945, (when Correa was thirty-three years old), as one of his efforts as a patron of the arts. This book is significant because it furthered Correa’s career, and also because it provides information about the painter’s life. In many cases, the black and white illustrations found in this unique book are the only surviving images of the painter’s work since Correa destroyed many of the originals in his frequent “purges.” Another example of Friede’s patronage, Correa was able to paint the polemic Anunciación [Annunciation] (1941), thanks to Friede’s support. In this book, Friede describes that work as “the first painting in Colombia to sum up and give visual form to the hybrid national character.”

Juan Friede (1901–1990), from Ukraine, studied economics in Vienna—an experience that proved decisive to his interest in the humanities—before pursuing advanced studies in London. He arrived in Colombia in 1926 to work for a trading house, and four years later, he became a citizen. In Colombia, he worked in business while also engaging in intensive and important research in the fields of history, ethnography, and art. In 1940, he opened the first art gallery in Colombia. He acted as a patron of many artists, and made films about some of them. He was a champion of the indigenous cause, working for the protection of archeological sites like San Agustín. Friede was a professor at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, the Universidad Libre, as well as Indiana University, Bloomington and the University of Texas at Austin. He was a member of many academic organizations, and starting in 1943, he published a number of pioneering works on Colombian history that now constitute crucial reference material.

In this book, Friede’s text on painter Carlos Correa (1912–1985) provides information on the painter’s life. The book also salvaged images that Correa later destroyed. The text served to offset the frequent criticism and outright rejection of Correa’s work at a time when religious authorities exercised great influence on questions of culture.