Atanasio Echeverría y Godoy

Atanasio Echeverría y Godoy was a Mexican artist, who worked as an illustrator for the Real Expedición Botánica a la Nueva España ( Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain ). His birth and date of death are not recorded, he died as a young man of Dysentery.

At the suggestion of the expedition leader Martín y Sessé Lacasta required for the documentation of the new-found plants signatories should be sought among the graduates, founded in Mexico in 1785 Academy of Fine Arts Academy of San Carlos. Together with the head of the Academia de San Carlos, Jerónimo Gil, Sessé taught from 1787 to the four most advanced students even in scientific drawing. Although that had not been part of their training, the students showed talent. Sessé was very involved, in a letter to Casimiro Gómez Ortega, he wrote: " The for plant Certain I visited at any hour, animated them with the price, already treated them as colleagues and were also other incentives, which the natural carelessness of these people needs. "

In April 1788 Vicente de la Cerda and Atanasio Echeverría were selected as a draftsman for the expedition. Sessé offered them each 600 pesos for the period in which they were working in the studio, which is double the time traveling. This grade was significantly lower than that of the artist who had accompanied a similar expedition to Peru. The Junta de Real Hacienda cut the wages of the signatories nevertheless to 500 pesos for the work in the studio, the double traveling. The two expedition signatories were offended because you appreciated their work to a minimum and demanded an increase in their salaries. Sessé spoke on the matter before the Viceroy.

In her travels through Mexico and neighboring countries botanists found so many new and unknown plants that the traveling artist could depict only about a third of it. That's why they were stopped to sketch the outlines of the plant with ink and imagine only a representative sample with water colors. Nevertheless, they did their job with great care, with some drawings can be only under a magnifying glass to detect all the details. The representations were almost never signed, so that only rarely can be determined, from which the two artists they originate. Overall, they made 2000 drawings wholly or partially completed, plus 400 sketches.

Atanasio Echeverría accompanied expeditions to California, Nootka and Cuba. From Nootka he brought with 200 sketches that he wanted to finish in Cuba. Before he came to, he contracted dysentery and died.

Augustin- de Candolle named Pyrame 1828, the newly established genus Echeveria by Atanasio Echeverría.