Petrona Viera

Who was Petrona Viera?

Petrona Viera was an Uruguayan painter.

She was born in Montevideo in 1895 as the daughter of Carmen Garino and President Feliciano Viera. She is considered the first female professional painter in Uruguay. She was part of the Planismo movement of austere lines and bright colors. Viera was deaf since the age of two due to meningitis, and used art as a way to express herself. As a child she was taught by a French teacher specializing in the teaching of deaf children, Madame Madeleine Larnaudie.

She began to paint at age 18, with private lessons from the Catalan master Vincent Puig, but later he left the country and in 1922 Viera began to take lessons from Guillermo Laborde. She began to exhibit her paintings in 1923, and had her first solo exhibition in 1926 at Gallery Maveroff. Viera was the first female painter in Uruguay to win prizes and also the first to be a full-time professional painter. Viera had to strive to overcome prejudice against her as the daughter of the President.

When Guillermo Laborde died in 1940, Viera suffered an acute crisis, which led her to change the direction of her work. She then learned the art of engraving with Guillermo Rodríguez. She also continued to paint, but changed her themes, including scenes of nature such as flowers, animals, etc.