Almeida Júnior
Almeida Júnior , actually José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior , (born May 8, 1850 in Itu , State of São Paulo , Brazil ; † November 13, 1899 in Piracicaba , State of São Paulo, Brazil) was an important Brazilian painter. He was the leading Brazilian painter of the late 19th century. He was a naturalist and regionalist whose genre painting is characterized by a pronounced local color . After his death he was awarded the title of " National Painter of Brazil ".
Life
Almeida Júnior was born in the city of Itu in the state of São Paulo. Even as a teenager he showed an extraordinary talent for painting and art, which prompted the priest Miguel Correa Pacheco to commission various pictures with religious themes from the youth, which he then painted for the church Igreja Matriz de Nossa Senhora da Candelária. It was also the priest who collected the money from the community so that Almeida Júnior could study. At the age of 19, in 1869, he went to Rio de Janeiro and enrolled there at the most important art school in Brazil, the Academica Imperial de Belas Artes (AIBA). His teachers were Jules Le Chevrel , Victor Meirelles and Pedro Americano . In 1874 he was awarded a prize for his paintings, with which he was able to finance a short stay in Europe.
After returning to his hometown, he opened a studio there and worked as a teacher in Itu at times. In 1876, during an inspection trip through the state of São Paulo, Emperor Dom Peter II met the young painter and offered him financial support for a proper study of art and painting in Europe. In 1876, the painter, endowed with a monthly stipend of 300 francs, began his trip to Europe, which initially took him to Rome , where he stayed only for a short time before continuing to Paris , his real destination. When he arrived in Paris, he took up residence in the neighborhood of Montmartre and enrolled at the École Superieure des Beaux Arts . There he became a student of Alexandre Cabanel and Lequien Fils. During his studies between 1879 and 1882 he took four times in the salon . During this time, some of his most famous masterpieces were created, such as Brazilian Lumberjack and Judas Reue (Salon of 1880), The Flight to Egypt (Salon of 1881) and Pause of the Model (Salon of 1882). 1882 returned to his homeland in Brazil. In the same year he traveled briefly to Italy to meet the brothers Henrique and Rodolfo Bernardelli .
At the Academica Imperial de Belas Artes he showed his first solo exhibition , where mainly his pictures from Paris could be seen. In 1883 he opened his first studio in São Paulo . In 1884 he took part in the 26th exhibition of the "Exposição Geral de Belas Artes da AIBA", which was generally considered to be the most important in the history of the Brazilian Empire.
The painter was murdered on November 13, 1899 by his cousin, José de Almeida Sampaio, in front of the Hotel Central de Piracicaba; The background was that Almeida Júnior had had a relationship with his cousin's wife for many years.
Importance as a painter
For Brazil, Almeida Júnior is particularly important as a naturalist and regionalist. Many of his paintings deal with the ordinary people of Brazil and show their everyday life. Thus he also became an important chronicler of Brazil at this time. Many of his paintings hang mainly in the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes , Rio de Janeiro or the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo , which honors him through solo exhibitions. The most controversial picture is “Pause des Modell”, taken in 1882, which shows a half-naked young person at a piano, which earned him the accusation of homophilia , which was not confirmed.
literature
- Gastão Pereira da Silva: Almeida Junior . Sua vida e sua obra. Editora do Brasil, São Paulo 1946 (Portuguese).
- Vicente de Paulo Vicente de Azevedo: Almeida Junior . O romance do pintor. Editora Própria, São Paulo 1985 (Portuguese).
- José Roberto Teixeira Leite: Dicionário crítico da pintura no Brasil . Artlivre, Rio de Janeiro 1988 (Portuguese).
- José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior . 1850 - 1899, for artista revisitado. Pinacoteca do Estado. Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo 2000 (Portuguese). (Catalog of the exhibition from January 25 to March 16, 2000).
- José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior . To criador de imaginários. Pinacoteca do Estado. Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo 2007 (Portuguese). (Catalog of the exhibition from January 25th to April 15th 2007).
Web links
- Almeida Júnior in the Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural (accessed July 29, 2014, Portuguese)
swell
- www.carricaturas.blogspots.com/2009/11/jose-ferraz-almeida-junior.html.
- www.pitoresco.com.br/laudelino/almeida_junior/almeida_junior.htm
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Almeida Júnior |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Almeida Júnior, Jose Ferraz de (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Brazilian painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 8, 1850 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Itu , State of São Paulo, Brazil |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 13, 1899 |
| Place of death | Piracicaba , State of São Paulo, Brazil |