In his letter to Manuel I of Portugal, Pero Vaz de Caminha gives what is considered by many today as being one of the most accurate accounts of what Brazil used to look like in 1500. "[...] Esse arvoredo, que é tanto, tamanho, tão basto e de tantas prumagens, que homens as não podem contar.", which roughly translates as "Such vastness of the enormous treeline, with abundant foliage, that is incalculable", is one of Pero's most famous descriptions. He describes in a diary from the first journey from Portugal to Brazil and their arrival in this country. This letter is considered to be the first document of Brazilian history as much as its first literary text. The original of this 27-page document can be found in the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Lisbon.
José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior, commonly known as Almeida Júnior, was a Brazilian artist and designer; one of the first there to paint in the Realistic tradition of Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet. The "Dia do Artista Plástico" is celebrated on his birthday.
Victor Meirelles de Lima was a Brazilian painter and teacher who is best known for his works relating to his nation's culture and history. From humble origins, his talent was soon recognized, being admitted as a student at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. He specialized in the genre of history painting, and upon winning the Academy's Foreign Travel Award, he spent several years training in Europe. There he painted his best-known work, Primeira Missa no Brasil. Returning to Brazil, he became one of emperor Pedro II's favorite painters, joining the monarch's patronage program and aligning himself with his proposal to renew the image of Brazil through the creation of visual symbols of its history.
The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes is a national art museum located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The museum, officially established in 1937 by the initiative of education minister Gustavo Capanema, was inaugurated in 1938 by President Getúlio Vargas. The museum collection, on the other hand, takes its rise in the transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil in the early 19th century, when King John VI brought along with him part of the Portuguese Royal Collection. This art collection stayed in Brazil after the King's return to Europe and became the core collection of the National School of Fine Arts. When the museum was created in 1937, it became the heir not only the National School collection, but also of its headquarters, a 1908 eclectic style building projected by Spanish architect Adolfo Morales de los Ríos.
The creation of art in the geographic area now known as Brazil begins with the earliest records of its human habitation. The original inhabitants of the land, pre-Columbian Indigenous or Natives peoples, produced various forms of art; specific cultures like the Marajoara left sophisticated painted pottery. This area was colonized by Portugal in the 16th century and given the modern name of Brazil. Brazilian art is most commonly used as an umbrella term for art created in this region post Portuguese colonization.
Pedro Américo de Figueiredo e Melo was a Brazilian novelist, poet, scientist, art theorist, essayist, philosopher, politician and professor, but is best remembered as one of the most important academic painters in Brazil, leaving works of national impact. From an early age he showed an inclination towards the arts, being considered a child prodigy. At a very young age, he participated as a draftsman on an expedition of naturalists through the Brazilian northeast, and received government support to study at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. He did his artistic improvement in Paris, studying with famous painters, but he also dedicated himself to science and philosophy. Soon after his return to Brazil, he began to teach at the Academy and began a successful career, gaining prominence with great paintings of a civic and heroic character, inserting himself in the civilizing and modernizing program of the country fostered by emperor Pedro II, of which the Imperial Academy was the regulatory and executive arm in the artistic sphere.
Rodolfo Amoedo was a Brazilian painter, designer and decorator.
Eliseu Visconti, born Eliseo d'Angelo Visconti, was an Italian-born Brazilian painter, cartoonist, and teacher. He is considered one of the very few Impressionist painters of Brazil. He is considered the initiator of the Art Nouveau in Brazil.
Brazilian painting, or visual arts, emerged in the late 16th century, influenced by the Baroque style imported from Portugal. Until the beginning of the 19th century, that style was the dominant school of painting in Brazil, flourishing across the whole of the settled territories, mainly along the coast but also in important inland centers like Minas Gerais.
Vasco de Ataíde was a Portuguese sailor whose ship was a part of Pedro Álvares Cabral's expedition to India in 1500. His ship went missing early in the voyage and so was not present when the fleet accidentally became the first recorded European presence to visit what is now Brazil.
The 1888 painting Independence or Death, also known as the Cry of Ipiranga is an oil on canvas painting by Pedro Américo, from 1888. It is the best known artwork representing the proclamation of the Brazilian independence.
The Imperial Academy of Fine Arts was an institution of higher learning in the arts in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, established by King João VI. Despite facing many initial difficulties, the Academy was established and took its place at the forefront of Brazilian arts education in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Academy became the center of the diffusion of new aesthetic trends and the teaching of modern artistic techniques. It eventually became one of the principal arts institutions under the patronage of Emperor Dom Pedro II. With the Proclamation of the Republic, it became known as the National School of Fine Arts. It became extinct as an independent institution in 1931, when it was absorbed by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and became known as the UFRJ School of Fine Arts, which still operates today.
Décio Rodrigues Villares was a Brazilian painter, sculptor, caricaturist, and graphic designer. He is best known for helping to design the blue disc on the Brazilian Flag and his designs for the monument honoring Júlio de Castilhos.
Oscar Pereira da Silva was a Brazilian painter, draftsman, designer, and instructor. He was active from the end of the 19th to the mid-20th century. He is noted for his depictions of historical events in Brazil, but also completed numerous portraits, religious works, genre scenes, still lifes, and landscapes. He "paid no attention to Brazilian folk tradition" and painted in an "antique style." After a period of study in France, he pursued a lucrative career in São Paulo, where his works are displayed at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and the Museu do Ipiranga.
Brazilian Romantic painting was the leading artistic expression in Brazil during the latter half of the 19th century, coinciding with the Second Reign. It represented a unique evolution of the Romantic movement; it diverged significantly from its European counterpart and even the parallel Romantic movement in Brazilian literature. Characterized by a palatial and restrained aesthetic, it incorporated a strong neoclassical influence and gradually integrated elements of Realism, Symbolism, and other schools, resulting in an eclectic synthesis that dominated the Brazilian art scene until the early 20th century.
Batalha dos Guararapes is an oil painting created between 1875 and 1879. It represents a history painting from the first confrontation of the Battle of Guararapes that took place in the 17th century in the Captaincy of Pernambuco, which culminated with the banishment of the Dutch invaders from Brazilian lands. The canvas was painted by the Brazilian artist and professor of historical painting Victor Meirelles and the scene represents the victory of the Brazilian troops against the Dutch on April 19, 1648, in the first of the two confrontations that occurred in that battle, fought in the region of Guararapes Hill. The second confrontation would be fought months later at the same location, on February 19, 1649, leading to the definitive expulsion of the Dutch troops from the colony, which would only occur in January 1654, with the signing of their capitulation.
The Belém Museum of Art (MABE) is a public municipal museum located in the city of Belém, capital of the state of Pará, Brazil. Founded in 1991, it is subordinated to the Cultural Foundation of the Municipality of Belém (FUMBEL). Its headquarters is the Antônio Lemos Palace, a neoclassical style building erected in the second half of the 19th century to be the headquarters of the Municipal Government, listed as heritage by the public authorities at the federal, state, and municipal levels.
Tikashi Fukushima was a Japanese-Brazilian painter and printmaker. Considered one of the most important abstractionists in Brazil, Fukushima also produced several works in the field of figurativism throughout his career. The artist has received various positive reviews from numerous important art critics for both his abstractionist and figurative productions. Fukushima belongs to the pre-war immigrant generation, composed of common immigrants who, after several changes in their lives, awakened to the arts. His master was Tadashi Kaminagai, whom Fukushima saw as a mentor, but who had a different style of painting than the one he later developed. Tikashi's works have been presented in national and international exhibitions.
The first mass in Brazil was celebrated by Portuguese friar and bishop Henrique de Coimbra on April 26, 1500, a Sunday, on the beach of Coroa Vermelha, in Santa Cruz Cabrália, on the southern coast of Bahia.
José Wasth Rodrigues was a Brazilian painter, drafter, illustrator, ceramist, teacher and historian. He was the uncle of the also illustrator Ivan Wasth Rodrigues.
