Paisagem com negros [Landscape with Black People]

This painting, executed by Eduard Hildebrandt after his return to Germany following his brief passage through Brazil in 1844, reveals the artist's taste for the exotic and his affinity with Orientalist painting. Before visiting Brazil, in 1840, the artist had taken a study trip to Scandinavia, England and Scotland. He subsequently moved to Paris where spent six months in the studio of painter and watercolorist Eugène Isabey (1803-1886). In 1843, he returned to Berlin and became a close friend of naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859). Thanks to him, Hildebrandt managed to receive financing from the king of Prussia, Frederick William IV, to visit America, where he traveled to Brazil and North-America. During this trip he produced a vast number of watercolors featuring landscapes, scenic views, cityscapes, and depictions of people. Hildebrandt probably used one of the watercolors produced during this trip as a basis for the execution of this oil paiting, a technique in which the artist seems to lose some of his spontaneity.