The Colors of Brazil

During his studies in France, Portinari decided to paint the Brazilian reality, with its colors and its people.

Scarecrow (1959) by Candido PortinariProjeto Portinari

“... The lost souls, the bogs, and the untouched forests accompany me like a scarecrow, which is my self-portrait. ... All fragile, poor things look like me.”

Candido Portinari

Landscape of Brodowski (1940) by Candido PortinariProjeto Portinari

“His journey starts in a slab of people called Brodowski, São Paulo, and ends in a summer morning in Rio de Janeiro.”

José Cardoso Pires, writer

Pierrot (1945) by Candido PortinariProjeto Portinari

“Between the coffee plantation and the dram, the kid paints a golden star in the chapel’s wall, and nothing else resists the painting hand…”

Excerpt from the poem “A mão” [The hand], written by Carlos Drummond de Andrade on occasion of the painter’s death.

Boys on Seesaw, Candido Portinari, 1960, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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“Do you know why I paint so many girls and boys in seesaws and swings? To get them on the air, like angels…”

Candido Portinari

Circus, Candido Portinari, 1932, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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“This immense artist who had, no doubt, a divine spark and kept himself forever as a child.”

Dom Helder Câmara

Sitting Girl, Candido Portinari, 1943, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Children Playing, Candido Portinari, 1940, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Boy with Sheep, Candido Portinari, 1954, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Boy with Top, Candido Portinari, 1947, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Maria Rosa, Candido Portinari, 1941, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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“A Carnaval play ... sometimes in black and white, sometimes in color, the language of dreams …”

O Globo, 1983

Maria Rosa and Benedita, Candido Portinari, 1941, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Carnival Parade, Candido Portinari, 1941, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Maria Rosa and the King, Candido Portinari, 1941, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Kites, Candido Portinari, 1941, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Soccer, Candido Portinari, 1941, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Festival of Saint John (1936) by Candido PortinariProjeto Portinari

“Fires, mulled wine, and brown sugar candy. Girls in Sunday clothes prayed to Saint Anthony [the saint of marriage]. The sky was whole and clear. Each person waited for their joy.”

Candido Portinari

Festival of Saint John, Candido Portinari, 1958, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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“In my painting … I always with to represent the people of Brazil: being born, suffering, working, partying at home and on the streets, with their clothes and their color; getting married, singing, crying, burying, and dying. … Whether I am painting, writing or even resting, these subjects are permanently on my mind.”

Candido Portinari

Bumba-Meu-Boi, Candido Portinari, 1959, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Lovers, Candido Portinari, 1940, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Serenade, Candido Portinari, 1959, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Frevo Dance, Candido Portinari, 1956, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Festival of Iemanjá, Candido Portinari, 1959, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Wedding in the Country, Candido Portinari, 1944, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Wedding, Candido Portinari, 1933, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Coffee (1935) by Candido PortinariProjeto Portinari

“... From no other artist or sage, painter or writer have we received a legacy that lyrically transcends our history the way his does.

Clarival do Prado Valladares

Discovery of the Land, Candido Portinari, 1941, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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"And if we add his great murals of 1941—Discovery of the Land, Teaching of the Indians, Entry into the Forest, and Discovery of Gold—for the Library of Congress, in Washington, to other works such as The First Mass (1943), the study for the Father Anchieta panel (1953-1961), Arrival of Dom João VI (1952), Slave Ship (1950), Tiradentes (1949), Discovery of Brazil (1954), and, what’s more, to the themes in the polyptych in the Ministry of Education and Health (1936-1944) then called Work in Brazilian Land or Economic Evolution, to the famous Coffee (1934) and the Disposessed series (1945), we will be faced with a collection of social-historical paintings of a certain people and region that can be recognized as one of history’s most noteworthy.”

Clarival do Prado Valladares

Catechesis, Candido Portinari, 1941, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Taming the Forest, Candido Portinari, 1941, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Mining of Gold, Candido Portinari, 1941, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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The First Mass in Brazil, Candido Portinari, 1948, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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The Arrival of Dom João VI to Bahia, Candido Portinari, 1952, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Slave Ship, Candido Portinari, 1950, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Rubber, Candido Portinari, 1938, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Tobacco, Candido Portinari, 1938, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Cotton, Candido Portinari, 1938, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Carnauba, Candido Portinari, 1944, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Mate Herb, Candido Portinari, 1938, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Cocoa, Candido Portinari, 1938, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Coffee, Candido Portinari, 1938, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Sugar Cane, Candido Portinari, 1938, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Tiradentes (1948) by Candido PortinariProjeto Portinari

“An epic panel: surely, one of the high points of 20th-century muralism.”

Antonio Bento

Discovery of the Land (1941) by Candido PortinariProjeto Portinari

“Characteristically, his painting is dominated not by captains, admirals or the priests of the Conquest, but by the common sailors in the fleet.”

Robert Smith

Saint Lucy and Saint Peter (1941) by Candido PortinariProjeto Portinari

“He said he was a materialist, but the saints certainly did not believe it. One who painted that wonderful Pampulha, who had the gift of portraying the mystique in a Saint Francis, who expressed, as only Candinho did, the torture and calling of sanctity in his figures prayed a great deal through his brushes.”

Dinah Silveira de Queiroz

Saint John of the Cross, Candido Portinari, 1944, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Saint Simon Stock, Candido Portinari, 1944, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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The Last Supper, Candido Portinari, 1950, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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The Baptism of Jesus, Candido Portinari, 1952, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Head of Jesus, Candido Portinari, 1941, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Saint Anthony, Candido Portinari, 1942, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Saint Francis Casting Off His Clothes, Candido Portinari, 1945, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Head of Saint Francis of Assisi, Candido Portinari, 1944, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Saint Francis of Assisi, Candido Portinari, 1944, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Jesus Among the Doctors, Candido Portinari, 1957, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Migrants (1944) by Candido PortinariProjeto Portinari

“The dispossessed are coming with bundles and packs They come from dry, dark lands; rocks Sore as sparks of burning coal.”

Candido Portinari

Burial in a Hammock, Candido Portinari, 1944, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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“The true Way of the Cross is his Dispossessed series. Few museums in the world have such a dramatic series about the men of their land that could compare to the Dispossessed in the São Paulo Art Museum.”

Clarival do Prado Valladares

Dead Child, Candido Portinari, 1944, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Dead Child, Candido Portinari, 1945, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Shantytown, Candido Portinari, 1957, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Shantytown at Dawn, Candido Portinari, 1960, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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City, Candido Portinari, 1959, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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“... the favelas from his later paintings had become spectral, translucent, much more disturbing than those he painted twenty years earlier, where the raw misery was lessened by the figure of handymen and of women carrying tin cans on their heads.”

Antonio Callado

Sitting Settler Woman, Candido Portinari, 1935, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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“I was impressed with the feet of the coffee plantation workers. Misshapen feet. Feet that could tell a story. ... Feet only saints have. ... Feet that inspired mercy and respect.”

Candido Portinari

Coffee Harvest, Candido Portinari, 1960, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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Transportation of Coffee, Candido Portinari, 1960, From the collection of: Projeto Portinari
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The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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