Burning Yerba Mate

Alfredo Andersen maintained an interest in the portrayal of the real throughout his career - developing a language influenced by Romanticism, Realism and Impressionism -, but the themes and the pictorial treatment diversify over time. In "Toasting Yerba Mate", Andersen portrays the moment when the yerba mate, the main economic product of Paraná until the beginning of the twentieth century, is passed by fire in order to dehydrate, a process that preceded its transportation to the sugar mill, where it was dried and grinded.