Luis Carlos Rodriguez Original Oil Portrait Painting \"Juan #3\" 1970, Framed For Sale

A Face You Won\'t Forget — Luis Carlos Rodriguez, \"Juan #3,\" 1970

There are portraits that record a face, and there are portraits that capture a soul. This is the latter. An elderly man in a battered brown hat gazes upward with an expression that contains entire worlds — weathered dignity, quiet humor, a lifetime of sun and work and survival written into every crease and line. Rodriguez renders the face with extraordinary technical precision while handling the shirt and background with loose, confident brushwork that signals a painter completely in command of his craft. The contrast between the two is not accidental — it is the whole point.

Oil on canvas, 1970. Signed \"Rodriguez\" in red, lower left. Acquired from a distinguished private collection in Coconut Grove, Florida.

About Luis Carlos Rodriguez

Rodriguez is a Colombian artist trained in the academic figurative tradition, with additional study in Mexico where exposure to post-revolutionary muralism and the broader currents of Latin American modernism shaped his painterly sensibility. His work is recognized for its disciplined draftsmanship, volumetric treatment of the human form, and expressive handling of paint — qualities that place him firmly within the great tradition of Latin American figurative painting.

But Rodriguez was a painter of unusual range. In the same year he painted this portrait he was also producing raw gestural nudes with abstract expressionist color fields behind them — a combination of Botero and de Kooning that speaks to a painter absorbing the full force of 1960s and 70s modernism without abandoning his Latin figurative roots. Juan #3 represents the other pole of that range — disciplined, intimate, deeply human.

What the Back Tells Us

The reverse of this canvas carries markings that elevate it above a generic portrait. Written in the artist\'s hand: \"JUAN #3 186\" — telling us this is the third in a series of portraits Rodriguez made of a subject named Juan, and that it carries the catalogue number 186 in his personal studio records. This was not a one-off commission. Juan was someone who mattered to Rodriguez — a recurring presence, a muse, a friend. That human context gives this painting a warmth and intimacy that no commissioned portrait ever has.

The Collection It Came From

This painting was acquired in the 1990s from the estate of a distinguished private collector in Coconut Grove, Florida — one of the most culturally vibrant and artistically significant communities in the American South. The collection included works by Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, and Joan Miró, alongside exceptional pieces by notable South American artists. This was a collector of exceptional taste and serious means — and they chose this painting.

This Painting

• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Date: 1970
• Canvas size: Approximately 13.25 × 17.25 inches
• Framed size: Approximately 17.25 × 21.25 × 1.5 inches
• Condition: Very good — surface strong with only minor age-appropriate blemishes consistent with a 55-year-old work
• Signed: \"Rodriguez\" in red, lower left front
• Back inscription: \"JUAN #3 186\" in artist\'s hand — titled and catalogue numbered

A Note on the Collection

This painting is one of several original works by Luis Carlos Rodriguez acquired from the same distinguished Coconut Grove estate now being offered. Also listed separately are two companion portraits from the same year — a luminous blue and gold profile of an elderly patriarch, painted on a frame that still bears the paint splatters of Rodriguez\'s own studio, and a powerfully rendered bearded elder set against a gestural field of reds and burnt oranges, signed and dated in full on the reverse. Together the three form a remarkable body of work — a painter\'s sustained meditation on the faces of old men, rendered across three very different emotional registers in the same remarkable year.

Collectors interested in acquiring two or more works as a group are warmly encouraged to reach out before purchasing individually. We are open to discussing the collection as a whole.

Shipping

Given the value of this work, all shipments are handled at the premium level only — custom-built wood crate inside a reinforced outer box, fully insured and requiring a signature upon delivery.

Local pickup available in Orlando or Miami, FL — please message us before purchasing to arrange.

Buy with Confidence

• 100% Original — this is the actual painting pictured. What you see is what you receive.
• Titled and catalogue numbered by the artist on the reverse
• Provenance: distinguished private collection, Coconut Grove, Florida
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• Museum-grade crated shipping, fully insured
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Questions? We welcome serious inquiries — please message us before you buy.