La Calavera Catrina

La Calavera Catrina ('Dapper Skeleton', 'Elegant Skull') is a 1910–1913 zinc etching by famous Mexican printmaker, cartoon illustrator and lithographer Jose Guadalupe Posada. The image depicts a female skeleton dressed only in a hat befitting the upper class outfit of a European of her time. Her chapeau originally is related to French and European styles of the early 20th century. She is meant to portray a satirisation of those Mexican natives who, Posada felt, were over embracing European traditions of the aristocracy in the pre-revolutionary era. She in particular, has become an icon of the Mexican Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.