Career
Ruelas was the principal illustrator of the Revista Moderna magazine and is most associated with Mexican symbolism. Artistically, he was noted for creating etched images depicting his own face, incorporating black, twisted lines to give an impression of being tormented. Born in Zacatecas, he lived in Mexico City from 1876, later attending the Colegio Militar and the Escuela de Bellas Artes.
He also studied under the academic painter Meyerbeer in Danzig.
Ruelas returned to Mexico in 1895 but spent the last three years of his life in Paris where he died on September 16, 1907 from tuberculosis.
