Emigrantes III

This painting, executed by Lasar Segall in 1936, is a fine example of the phase that began in the early 1930s and went until 1945, and which has the "Navio de Emigrantes" of 1941 as its most representative work. Characterized by a formal solidity, most likely from its experiments with sculpture in the 1930s, and a density of matter accentuated by the addition of sand and sawdust to paints, this period deals with a social theme strongly marked by the experience of World War II, as well as its antecedents and consequences.

The composition is organized from the rhythm imposed by the straight and diagonal lines formed by the heads of the five represented figures. The hands, like the veil that covers the head of the central female figure, act as compositional elements of the painting, thus creating formal bridges between the characters. The two masculine figures of the left, in particular the most extreme one, remember the features of Segall, while the central figure is of Lucy Citti Ferreira, painter, model and collaborator for many years of the artist. The two figures on the right, the boy head-on who faces us and the old man with closed eyes, are not identifiable. However, the old gentleman with long white beards is a recurring figure in Segall's work, just remember the paintings "Meus avós" of 1921, or "Velhice", 1924, to realize that we are here before an image that for the artist he carried a deep symbolic charge.

What the artist said about his "Navio de Emigrantes" could easily also apply to this painting: "I stripped it of all objective realism to make it a symbol." It is not a question here of objective portraits of emigrants, but of symbols of the uncertain condition of the one who emigrated or was exiled; the one that no longer inhabits his native land, the one that now no longer belongs, a condition that was lived by Segall, and narrated by him in his paintings. It is interesting to note a certain experimental regression in the works of this period. If one considers his earlier works, expressionist paintings or even the works of the Brazilian period, it is seen that in the 1930s and 1940s the artist returned to more correct and more traditional forms. It can be related to the period in which Segall lived in Paris, between 1928 and 1932, the origins of what could be called conservative. There no doubt he came into contact, as did several other artists of the period, with the works of Picasso's neoclassical phase, which clearly influenced his production.