Florencia Molina Campos

Florencia Molina Campos (1891-1959) was an Argentinian artist who is famous for his illustrations of typical ‘gaucho’ scenes. In 1926 Campos impressed the President of Argentina upon seeing his first exhibition in Buenos Aires.

Campos went on to be commissioned to illustrate a calendar for Alpargatas – the famous makers of espadrilles. This calendar experienced phenomenal success and he continued to produce it for 12 years. Campos continued to experience success with various exhibitions both in Argentina and the USA.

A close friend of Campos was Walt Disney, and Campos was employed a creative artist for Disney. Together they created the scenes and characters of the film ‘Bambi’. Inspiration came from the wildlife on Victoria Island in Patagonia. Campos continued to be employed as a consultant with Disney and worked on other projects such as ‘Saludos Amigos’, ‘The Three Caballeros’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

Many of Campos’ pictures depict typical ‘gaucho’ (cowboy/farmer) scenes, often showing men hunting, women cooking, people drinking yerba mate, cooking outdoors etc. The pictures contained an element of humour, and true grit of real life.

The ‘gaucho’ way of life is an outdoor existence; working the land, handling livestock, eating and drinking simple food and drink. The food eaten would consist of meat, and simple accompaniments such as bread, fried dough mostly cooked on fire. Yerbamateis an important drink, sipped all day long and shared between everyone.