Curatorial Note

Jesus Mariano Leuus’ Family Portrait is an exceptionally large 1993 oil on board, measuring approximately 55 inches high. Purchased directly from the artist by the Haas family for exhibition in their Mexico City gallery, the work is a rare large-scale example of Leuus’ family-centered figural style. Its luminous yellow, red, and lavender figures create a quiet but powerful image of connection, protection, and belonging.

This exceptionally large oil on board by Jesus Mariano Leuus is one of the most commanding works in the Braselton Art Gallery collection. At approximately 55 inches high by 38–39 inches wide, the painting has a scale and presence rarely encountered in Leuus’ market history, where smaller works appear far more commonly. Here, Leuus’ quiet, simplified figures are given full architectural weight: a seated father-like form in luminous yellow, a central red figure turned inward, and a lavender-robed figure whose hand rests gently at the center of the composition.
The result is a painting that is both monumental and deeply intimate. Leuus’ familiar visual language — rounded faces, minimal features, soft modeling, and emotionally charged stillness — is used here not for a single figure, but for a family grouping. The three bodies form a closed circle of touch, care, and protection. The figures do not speak, yet the painting is filled with relationship: the red figure leans into the seated form, the lavender figure reaches forward, and the large yellow figure anchors the scene with a near-sacred calm.
The color is unusually strong and gallery-commanding. The yellow, red, lavender, black, and dark brown background create a composition that is immediately readable from across a room, but rewards close viewing through its surface texture, softened transitions, and hand-worked tonal depth. The simplicity is deceptive; the painting’s emotional effect comes from restraint rather than detail.
This work also carries excellent provenance. It was purchased directly from Jesus Leuus by the Haas family for exhibition in their Mexico City gallery and was later acquired by Braselton Art Gallery. It remains in its original, substantial black-and-gold frame, a museum-level presentation that reinforces the painting’s scale and importance. The painting itself presents in excellent condition, with only minor age-related imperfections visible to the original frame.
For BAG, Family Portrait is an anchor painting: large, warm, immediately accessible, and emotionally resonant. It represents Leuus at his strongest — not merely as a painter of stylized figures, but as an artist capable of turning family, silence, and touch into a monumental visual statement.