RAQUEL DO CARMO SANTOS

A Introduction of the regional theme in the works of painter José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior has always been a controversial point among critics: if one party refuses to recognize innovative aspects in the production of Almeida Jr. (so recognized internationally), because of academic standards of painting, the other highlights the importance of his work for Brazilian art. Oswald de Andrade, one of the most influential critics of the modernist period, for example, points to the artist as a precursor of genuinely Brazilian painting. Among his main works are Caipira picando tobacco, Violeiro and Amolação interrupto.

“Almeida Júnior, a Brazilian soul?” is the title of the master's thesis by artist Paula Giovana Lopes Andrietta Frias, which collected more than one hundred pages with criticisms of the painter's work (1850-1899). In contact with the work of Almeida Júnior since graduation, Paula sees the appreciation of the regional theme as one of the most important aspects of this trajectory. “He was born in Itu, in the interior of São Paulo, and even though he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Paris, he did not lose his connection with the region. In his biography it is easy to find observations of appreciation for his straw cigarettes and country accent. He also had friends in the region, who he made a point of visiting frequently,” she says.

Paula Frias, who was guided by professor Paulo Kühl, also points out other factors that would have influenced Almeida Júnior to adopt such a style: contact with French artists who portrayed rural workers in their works; the search for a national identity by 19th century society, especially São Paulo; and its proximity to the country environment. Almeida Júnior came from a family of few resources and his main supporter was the parish priest of the Main Church of Itu, Father Miguel, who would have raised the money for the painter's studies at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. The stay in Paris was due to the emperor's scholarship.

Almeida Júnior left an extensive work that won many awards, but was intensely discussed by critics, both in terms of theme and technique. In his regionalist works, the artist adopted lighter colors, which is known as lightening the palette – an effect that some critics attributed to the influence of the brightness of the Brazilian sun. “Despite such controversies involving his work, I conclude in my dissertation that Almeida Júnior managed to innovate. If we analyze the context of 19th century Brazilian art and his works from a technical and thematic point of view, there is no doubt about the importance of his work for national art.”