La Calavera Catrina — José Guadalupe Posada
José Guadalupe Posada, 1910
No print size passed the check for this piece: at 10 x 8 in, Wrong shape: a 11% crop. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.
See pieces like it you can buyPosada’s broadside etching of an elegant, elaborately hatted female skeleton — La Calavera Catrina. Posada made calaveras a genre unto themselves: mortality satire aimed at the pretensions of the Mexican elite, printed cheaply and sold in the street. The hat is more elaborate than any feature of the skull beneath it — vanity is the whole joke. Death dresses up. It never changes underneath.
- Maker
- José Guadalupe Posada
- Date
- 1910
- Medium of the original
- Broadside
- Original held by
- Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- Wikimedia Commons · via Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Cleared for print
- Catalogue number
- PA-00897
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 10 x 8 in | Wrong shape: a 11% crop |
| 12 x 8 in | 95 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 14 x 11 in | 73 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 16 x 12 in | 67 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 18 x 12 in | 63 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 20 x 16 in | Wrong shape: a 11% crop |
| 24 x 16 in | 47 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 18 in | 44 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 20 in | 38 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 11% crop |
| 36 x 24 in | 31 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 40 x 30 in | 26 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 48 x 36 in | 22 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 60 x 40 in | 19 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,140 x 808 px, srgb
- Tone
- Darks 28, lights 255 of 255; 9.6% clipped light, 0.9% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 55.02
- Notes
- Pure white on 10% of the image, mostly the sheet itself: it prints as the paper's white
The Poster Atlas
The national-parks series: the parks belonged to everyone, and so did the art.
All 46 pieces from The Poster Atlas
