Matilde Poulat

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Matilde Eugenia Poulat Delgado (15 November 1899 – 6 September 1960), who signed her work MATL, was a Mexican jewelry designer, silversmith, painter, and workshop proprietor based in Mexico City. Trained at the Academy of San Carlos, she adopted the MATL mark in 1934 and became known for densely worked silver jewelry combining repoussé, carved stones, turquoise, coral, amethyst, obsidian, and religious and pre-Columbian imagery.

Her nephew Ricardo Salas collaborated with her and later produced jewelry under the name MATL/Salas.

Early life and artistic training

Matilde Eugenia Poulat Delgado was born on 15 November 1899. Her father, Julio Poulat Herrera, was a banker, government official, and journalist; her mother was Indigenous. Her paternal family, of French origin, operated a bronze foundry in Mexico City. Cooper Hewitt also gives 1899 as her birth year, while the Los Angeles County Museum of Art gives her dates as approximately 1888–1960.

Poulat studied painting and sculpture at the Academy of San Carlos against her father's wishes. She supported the academy's student strike in 1911, signing a public letter published in Nueva Era. In April 1915, she and fellow student Rosa María Arroyo were expelled for their involvement in activities associated with Dr. Atl.

Jorge Enciso became her teacher and mentor. Poulat exhibited with his students at the Salón Bach in 1917 and shared a studio with Lolita Velázquez, later known as Lola Cueto, in 1917–1918. In January 1920, she exhibited a sculpture titled Un Vaso de Tecolotes ("An Owls Vessel") at the former Academy of San Carlos.

Teaching and glasswork

Before concentrating on silver, Poulat worked in textile and glass design. Her nephew Jorge René Poulat Legorreta recalled her production of large objects in cobalt-blue glass. She also taught drawing and painting to children, using the teaching method developed by Adolfo Best Maugard.

In June 1929, Poulat requested funding to develop artistic glass production, particularly black glass resembling obsidian, for reproductions of objects in the National Museum. Her proposal was forwarded to Diego Rivera, then director of the Central School of Plastic Arts, in December. Poulat subsequently advertised for silversmiths to execute her designs. Her nephews Ricardo Salas and Jorge René Poulat Legorreta later joined the workshop.

Establishment of MATL

By 1934, Poulat’s silver business was successful enough for her to leave teaching. She adopted the mark "MATL", combining part of her name with the Nahuatl word atl, meaning water.

Demand increased during the Second World War, when American buyers turned to Mexican silver after European sources became less accessible. The MATL workshop grew to employ thirty-three silversmiths.

Poulat sold her work through Frederick Walter Davis and hotel gift shops before opening a retail shop in her home in Mexico City’s Zona Rosa around 1950. Salas later recalled that the workshop developed approximately three thousand jewelry models and one hundred religious designs.

Work was divided among specialist craftspeople: Jorge René Poulat Legorreta set and polished stones, while Salas undertook lapidary work and carved ivory faces. The workshop also employed women skilled in repoussé. Poulat produced bronze and copper sculpture and vessels alongside her jewelry.

Influences

Poulat was influenced by the discovery in 1932 of Mixtec gold jewelry at Monte Albán. According to Jorge René Poulat Legorreta, she credited the archaeologist Eulalia Guzmán and the discovery of Mixtec goldwork with encouraging her to design jewelry. She used archaeological material as a source of forms and motifs rather than copying it literally.

Her recurring doves, flowers, and small bells reflected Mexican folk art.

Design and materials

Poulat’s motifs, including flowers, birds, fish, spirals, and S-curves, drew on Best Maugard’s approach to Mexican decorative art. Her jewelry combined repoussé relief, applied wire, embossed details, and cabochon stones; polished surfaces contrasted with oxidized areas.

LACMA's necklace with locket, made around 1950, combines silver, turquoise, and rock crystal in a composition centered on two facing birds and a large medallion. A framed mask brooch in the museum's collection combines silver with carved obsidian and reflects a design type introduced earlier by Frederick Walter Davis.

Exhibitions and recognition

Poulat received international recognition in 1941 when she participated in an exhibition of Latin American silver at the Pan American Union in Washington, D.C.

In 1955, Poulat represented Mexico at the Bienal Hispanoamericana de Arte in Barcelona alongside William Spratling and Antonio Castillo. Ramón Valdiosera commissioned her to make copper and brass jewelry for the 1955 film Chilam Balam.

Her work was later included in museum exhibitions addressing the twentieth-century Mexican silver renaissance. The exhibition Maestros de Plata, organized by the San Antonio Museum of Art and presented at the Mingei International Museum, included Poulat among the major designers represented in its survey of Mexican silver from the 1930s onward.

William Spratling wrote in 1955 that Poulat produced some of the most distinctive native jewelry in Mexico and compared its color and surface richness to lacquer work from Uruapan.

Ricardo Salas and continuation of the workshop

Ricardo Salas collaborated with Poulat on designs and became skilled in repoussé and chasing. Morrill dates the separation of their workshops to before Poulat's death: following a disagreement, Salas established his own workshop with permission to use her designs and the MATL name. His workshop used the name "MATL/Salas". He continued production after her death and also made new designs.

Death and legacy

Poulat died on 6 September 1960.

Her jewelry and decorative objects are held by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

See also

• Mexican silver renaissance
• Taxco school of silver design
• William Spratling
• Mexican handcrafts and folk art

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Morrill, Penny C. (2018). Dreaming in Silver / Soñar en Plata: Silver Artists of Modern Mexico. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing. ISBN 9780764356513.
• Morrill, Penny Chittim; Berk, Carole A. (1998). Mexican Silver: 20th Century Handwrought Jewelry & Metalwork (Revised ed.). Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing. ISBN 9780764306631.