This week’s work of art is by an artist from Argentina, Carlos Morel. I saw the original in Buenos Aires at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. The painting is known as Payada en Una Pulperia or Duel in the Taproom and was created in 1840.

The duel depicted in the painting is of the musical variety, with two guitar players squaring off against one another to the general merriment of all the people drinking in the taproom.

Morel is considered to be Argentina’s first great painter. He was born in Buenos Airies in 1813 and lived until 1894, painting a great number of watercolors and oil paintings throughout his career. Here’s a translated biography