Esteban Chartrand y Dubois was born in Matanzas on October 11, 1840, and died on January 26, 1883. Despite his short life, he is one of the most significant painters of Cuban art of the period, having achieved recognition among his contemporaries and becoming a figure of reference for the wealthy bourgeoisie of the island’s most important cities.

His fame was primarily due to the beauty of his landscapes, where the fecundity and chromatic treatment of the images were quite innovative. He employed violet, yellow, and orange tones, with techniques that denote the influence of French Romanticism and other latitudes, but which acquire particular significance in the Cuban context.

This can be illustrated by just a few titles: Yumurí Valley, Matanzas Estuary, San Juan River, Batey of a Coffee Plantation, and A Sugar Mill, all pieces that belonged to Guillermo de Zaldo’s collection. Along these same lines is “El salto de Hanabanilla,” which was exhibited at the Sixth Inter-American Conference in 1933, along with the pieces mentioned in the next paragraph.

It must be said that “Dawn,” “Noon,” “Afternoon,” and “Night” are the artist’s most important canvases; together they form an interesting mosaic of his artistic vision and the use of painting techniques he mastered to perfection. These paintings date from 1873 and were commissioned by the powerful landowner Don Mariano Averhoff y Prieto, owner of the Averhoff sugar mill in Matanzas. They later passed into the hands of Bernardo Gómez Toro, son of Máximo Gómez.

He also created “Landscape” and “The Gatekeeper”—both in the Emilio Govantes collection—as well as “Midday Squall.” The pieces “La Chorrera Castle at Sunset” and “San Lázaro Tower at Sunrise” were in the possession of Andrés Terry and Rodríguez Lazanque. One of his best-known pieces, “Boiler House of the Tinguaro Sugar Mill,” belonged to the Julio Lobo collection.