Asalto de la tercera columna argentina a Curupaytí

López employed oil paint to build layered textures, particularly in the depiction of uniforms, weapons, and terrain. His brushwork is energetic, with visible strokes suggesting motion and urgency. While not formally academic, the composition avoids idealization: figures are crowded, perspectives slightly skewed, and skies rendered with loose, atmospheric washes. These choices prioritize emotional immediacy over precision, aligning with a vernacular realism common among soldier-artists of the period.

Created three decades after the battle, the painting was likely informed by López’s memories and sketches made during the war. It entered the collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires shortly after its completion, where it was recognized as a rare firsthand visual account of the conflict. Its preservation reflects Argentina’s postwar effort to document military history through personal testimony and artistic representation.

The Paraguayan War (1864–1870) was the deadliest conflict in South American history, involving Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay against Paraguay. López’s painting emerged during a period of national consolidation, when visual art was increasingly used to shape collective memory. Unlike official commissions, his work carries the rawness of personal recollection, offering a counterpoint to state-sanctioned narratives of heroism and order.

López’s painting remains one of the few surviving visual records of the Paraguayan War created by a participant. While not widely exhibited internationally, it holds significance within Argentine art history as an example of civilian-soldier testimony rendered in paint. Its unpolished style and emotional directness have influenced later generations of artists seeking to depict war beyond propaganda, grounding historical narrative in lived experience.