Pancho Fierro

[citation needed] He had been manumitted upon his birth, following a rule that said no son of a Spaniard could be born a slave, but was raised by his mother's family.

He married in 1828 and made his living by painting signs, making posters for bullfights and molding statues for nativity scenes.

Today, he is remembered for his watercolors, painted on sign cards, depicting everyday scenes from Peruvian life.

The writer Ricardo Palma owned a large collection which his heirs gave to the City of Lima.

[1] According to an obituary in El Comercio, he died of paralysis in a hospital on Peruvian Independence Day.