This document is important because shortly before the book was finalized for publication, Fernando Botero (b. 1932) was awarded the second prize for painting at the IX Salón Anual de Artistas Colombianos (1952), with his work Frente al mar. With the prize money and the receipts from the sale of a few paintings, Botero would undertake a trip to Europe, where he would enter into direct contact with the Italian Renaissance, a pivotal experience in the development of his work.
In 1938, the Austrian critic Walter Engel (1908–2005), educated in Vienna and Paris as an historian and artist, set himself up in Colombia and began to develop his professional work, becoming the leading art critic in Colombia. In 1952, Engel took the bold step of publishing the first book about Botero when his subject was only twenty years old, based on the critic’s belief that he was a promising young artist. This promise had been shown in the 1951 exhibition, held at the gallery of the photographer Leo Matiz (1917–98), in Bogotá. In Engel’s opinion, these expectations were confirmed by the artist’s next exhibition, held at the same place, after the season Botero spent in the town of Tolú, on the Colombian Atlantic coast.