Natureza-morta (1889) by Estevão SilvaMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
November 2022 will mark 131 years since the death of the artist Estevão Roberto da Silva. The black artist, son of enslaved people, was born in Niterói on December 26, 1845 and died on November 9, 1891 at the age of 46.
[Vista de] Botafogo tomada do morro da Viúva [para o álbum Panoramas da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, RJ]" (1855) by Iluchar DesmonsMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Panorama of the city of Rio de Janeiro | 1855
Despite being the son of slaves and living in Rio de Janeiro during slavery in Brazil, Estevão Silva was a freeman.
Alfândega [in álbum] Pernambuco (1852) by Emil BauchMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
The harsh reality of a slave-owning country
In his lifetime, he experienced abolitionist movements and the promulgation of documents that gradually extinguished the Brazilian slave system, such as the following laws:
Eusébio de Queirós Law - September 4, 1850 - Establishes measures for the repression of African-people trafficking in Brazil
Rua da Cruz, [in álbum] Pernambuco (1852) by Emil BauchMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
• Lei do Ventre Livre or Lei Rio Branco - September 28, 1871 - Declares the children of enslaved women born since the date of this law free condition, freeing the slaves of the Nation and others, and providing on the upbringing and treatment of those minor children and on the annual liberation of slaves;
• Sexagenarian Law - September 28, 1885 - law that freed slaves aged 60 or over;
• Lei Áurea - May 13, 1888 - Declares slavery in Brazil extinct.
Natureza-morta (1889) by Estevão SilvaMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Little is yet known of Estevão Silva's biography, but his life was marked by two significant episodes.
Retrato do pintor Giovanni Battista Castagneto (1880) by Estevão SilvaMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Transgressions
These episodes reveal the rebellious personality of Estevão Silva.
Natureza-morta (1889) by Estevão SilvaMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
I refuse!
The refusal of the award occurred during the award ceremony of the General Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1879, presided over by Emperor Pedro II. This refusal led to his suspension for one year from the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts.
The Jornal Gazeta da Noite of December 10, 1879, when reporting what had happened, said that Estevão Silva protested with great dignity in front of the monarch who, after the refusal of the prize, asked to see the painting, examined it and said nothing. Being interpreted by the newspaper as a protest against the act of the Congregation of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, the newspaper also reports that Estevão received congratulations from everyone who also considered the trial unfair.
Retrato do pintor Giovanni Battista Castagneto (1880) by Estevão SilvaMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
The other episode, the reaction to the attitude of a commander who refused to pose as a model, meant that the artist would no longer be sought out for portraits, which at the time was a source of income for many artists.
The National Museum of Fine Arts presents in its collection, five works by the artist Estevão Roberto da Silva that were produced after these episodes.
These are paintings made in the oil on canvas technique, made between 1880 and 1891, being one a portrait
and four still lifes.
Fruits (1888) by Estevão SilvaMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Estevão Silva excelled at crafting still-life compositions in a very realistic manner,
having been influenced by artists and professors Agostinho José da Mota and Vitor Meirelles de Lima, and by meeting members of the Grimm Group, such as Antonio Parreiras and Castagneto.
There are several reports, in newspapers of the time and by art critics, about the reception of his still-life paintings as to the provoked sensations that prompted the desire to taste the fruits.
Natureza-morta (1891) by Estevão SilvaMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Estevão Silva presented in the still-life theme vast tropicality filled with fruits such as mangoes, pineapples, carambolas, cashews, oranges, grapes, pomegranates... that were painted with a certain freedom in the face of the academic canons that privileged historical painting.
Natureza-morta (1889) by Estevão SilvaMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Dating from 1889, the composition presents a set of fruits in perfect balance and symmetry. The pineapple, in the center,
surrounded by mangoes,
pitangas (Surinam cherries),
oranges and
bananas are the perfect example of the realist tone in representing fruit.
Foreshadowing Modernity and the belated recognition
The art critic Quirino Campofiorito said that once in an exhibition, Estevão Silva placed pieces of fruit behind his paintings, thus considering him the precursor of Happening.
"Gifted with a sense of humor, [Estevão] was probably a precursor of what is now known as happening art. In one of his exhibitions with fruit paintings, he made real fruit (guavas, cashews, jackfruit, etc.) remain hidden behind the trainees, which surprised the visitors who even perceived in his canvases the strong smell of the fruit."
Quirino Campofiorito
Fruits (1888) by Estevão SilvaMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
In his day, a still-life painter was considered second-rate. Despite the thematic lack of prestige, financial difficulties and racism, Estevão Silva obtained some recognition for the quality of his paintings.
In his modest studio, which was always full of fruits and crockery, Estevão Silva devoted a lot of time to the elaboration of paintings that showed great technical skill and innovation in the face of the neoclassical representation model characteristic of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts
His artistic production went through a process of appreciation by curators José Roberto Teixeira Leite and Emanoel Araújo in the late 1980s.
However, today it is still not as esteemed within what would be Brazilian pre-modernism.
In life, Estevão Silva had little recognition from the artistic field and society itself.
In July 1887, he held an exhibition with 80 canvases at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios, which was analyzed by Manoel Cardoso in a column in the Diário Ilustrado. The critic informed that the exhibition brought together a production of three years of works with the theme of fruit.
Orquídeas (1888) by Estevão SilvaMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
On January 12, 1888, the Diário de Notícias newspaper recorded a tribute that the artist received from a group of students at his home: a gold pin in the shape of a reed with natural flowers. The tribute was accompanied by artists, among them Rodolfo Amoedo.
Also at the end of that year, the artist received a diploma of merit from the Congress of Benevolence and Instruction.
Natureza-morta (1889) by Estevão SilvaMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
This type of thematic representation of his paintings was recognized as images of a brazilianness.
In 1889, the artist had more than twenty paintings selected to participate in the Universal Exhibition in Paris, which served as Brazil's calling card to announce to the world the end of slavery in the country and thus attract immigrants to work in the Brazilian plantations.
Currently, in light of the new perspectives of analysis of the production of various artists in the context of race and gender, Estevão Silva has been repositioned in the history of Brazilian art.
Recently the exhibitions Modern when? Modern Where? and Modernos – Before 22 held respectively at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo and at the Museu de Arte Brasileira of Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, are examples of a historiographical review, but also It needs to be analyzed to what extent his racial condition contributes to the episode that occurred in the 1879 exhibition and to his invisibility in the history of Brazilian art for much of the 20th century, which, as in all fields, was marked by prejudices and social hierarchies.
Estevão Silva: transgressões e prenúncios da modernidade
Curadoria
Cláudia Rocha
Idealizada especialmente para o Google Arts & Culture, 2022
Áudios “Recuso" e "A refusa" com Reginaldo Tobias de Oliveira.
Referências Bibliográficas
CAMPOFIORITO, Quirino. História da pintura brasileira no século XIX. RJ: Pinakotheke, 1983- v. 4 p. 77
CHAIMOVIC, Felipe. A Galeria Brasileira de Belas-Artes na Exposição Universal de 1889. 40º Colóquio do Comitê Brasileiro de História da Arte. 2020. .
FRANÇA, Cristina Pierre. Estevão Silva e Hélio Oiticica. Brasilidade. A sensação revisitada. RJ: EBA/UFRJ, 2002. PARREIRAS, Antônio Diogo da Silva. História de um pintor contada por ele mesmo. Niterói: 1943. 2- Ed. p. 48-49
PESSÔA, Alexandre Neiva. Estevão Silva e a pintura de naturezas mortas no Brasil do século XIX. RJ: EBA/UFRJ, 2002.
SQUEFF, Letícia. Um maldito na Academia: Estevão Silva. In Cultura e Poder entre o Império e a República, 2018.
