Francisco Fierro Palas (1809-1879), popular painter known as Pancho Fierro . He was born in Lima in 1809, his parents being Nicolás Fierro and Carmen Palas. Apparently, his ability to paint was innate, although the lack of a refined technique evidences his self-taught training. His activity was permanently related to his manual dexterity and he earned his living painting signs and bullfighting posters, molding small figures to decorate Christmas nativity scenes and making wall decorations. He captured in innumerable watercolors various scenes of Lima life, portraying people from all social strata and all trades, constituting an invaluable testimony of daily customs in the Peruvian capital during the second third of the 19th century> .
Main works of Pancho Fierro
The ham maker, the nougat maker, the buñuel maker, the placera, the anticuchero, the biscuit maker, the ice cream maker parade in its sheets; dances like those of the “chunchos” , the one with the “pallas” , the “sound of the devils” . Despite having lived through the effervescence of the times of emancipation, there are few watercolors that portray this stage, except -according to Angélica Palma- “those labeled A Sitiador del Callao, An Argentine-Chilean Army Officer . I was from the Liberation Army and Sergeant Zapata” . He preferred, instead, the costumbrista stamp of the covered ones, the slaves, the vacationers in Chorrrillos, the Indians, the clerics, etc.
The author himself sold his watercolors in the Broggi store and, over the years, they turned out to be highly appreciated by travelers and collectors such as the French diplomat Leoncio Angrand or the Russian ethnographer Leopoldo Shrenk, giving rise to works theirs can be found in countries as different as the United States, Russia, France or Argentina. Among Peruvians, the traditionalist Ricardo Palma was the owner of the most important collection, which is currently kept in the municipal art gallery of Lima.
Death of Pancho Fierro
Pancho Fierro died in abject poverty on July 28, 1879 at the Dos de Mayo charity hospital . As the artist did not sign his watercolors, it has been the case that some others have been attributed to him and, at the same time, that the titles and dates of these paintings are not very reliable. In 1975, Manuel Cisneros Sánchez published Pancho Fierro and the Lima of 800 , a study on the mulatto painter, including numerous full color reproductions.