A skeleton strides forward, larger than life, with a swaggering mustache and a wide-brimmed hat that nearly dwarfs its skull. The figure’s bony hand clutches a striped scarf, the other an oversized bottle labeled “Aguardiente de Par,” and the whole composition is alive with motion—lines ripple in the hat, the scarf, the ground beneath its sandals. The mood is both playful and biting: here, death is not a distant specter but a familiar character, dressed in the garb of a Mexican revolutionary, his empty sockets somehow brimming with personality.

The artist’s bold, rhythmic linework gives the skeleton a sense of weight and presence, while the exaggerated mustache and hat root him unmistakably in the world of the living. This print belongs to the world of José Guadalupe Posada, whose calaveras—skeleton figures—became icons of Mexican popular art in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These images were often printed cheaply for mass audiences, lampooning politicians, revolutionaries, and everyday folk alike, and they flourished in a time of social upheaval and revolution. Though the exact date of Calavera Maderista is unknown, its inclusion in the National Gallery of Art’s collection today speaks to the enduring power of Posada’s vision.

His calaveras, once ephemeral street art, now invite us to look again—at the humor, the critique, and the life found in the face of death.