José Guadalupe Posada's Engravings of Unusual Births (Ca. 1880–1910)

The Mexican illustrator José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913) is best known today for his popularization of calaveras — fully-dressed, grinning skeletons posed as if in the full flush of life. Calaveras have come to symbolize the Mexican Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, and, in some sense, Mexico itself. But they are just part of Posada’s prolific output. Over the course of a career estimated to have produced over 20,000 individual engravings, Posada developed a reputation for his biting political satire. He extended his iconic graphic style in all directions: capturing national events and everyday life, designing chapbook covers, and illustrating stories, advertisements, and more. But Posada also applied himself to the gruesome and the sensational: natural disasters and crimes, kidnapping and executions, floods and fires. One corner of his oeuvre is monsters, demons, and reports of so-called “freak births”. ... Read full article.