Carlos Julião (Turim, Itália 1740 - Rio de Janeiro RJ 1811)
Draftsman, watercolorist and painter.
In the mid-18th century, he began his military career in the service of the Portuguese crown, reaching the rank of brigadier in 1811. He made several journeys to the Portuguese colonies in America, India and China, and was responsible for surveying city plans and inspecting fortifications. Probably in 1767, he came to Brazil, passing through Bahia, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, where he made watercolor drawings focusing on scenes of everyday life, clothing, means of transport and slave labor. There are 43 watercolors on Brazil which, together with others resulting from his travels through Asia and America, are gathered in the work Notícia Sumária do Gentilismo na Ásia com Dez Riscos Iluminados / Ditos de Figurinhos de Brancos e Negros dos Uzos do Rio de Janeiro e Serro Frio / Ditos de Vasos e Tecidos Peruvianos [Summary Account of Heathenism in Asia with Ten Illuminated Drawings / Ditto of Figures of Whites and Blacks of the Customs of Rio de Janeiro and Serro Frio / Ditto of Peruvian Vessels and Textiles], produced between 1776 and 1779. These watercolors later became part of the collection of the Biblioteca Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, which published them in 1960 under the title Riscos Iluminados de Figurinhos de Brancos e Negros dos Uzos do Rio de Janeiro e Serro do Frio, with a text by Lygia da Fonseca Fernandes da Cunha. In 1799, he also painted a panoramic view of the city of Salvador, with façades and plans of fortresses and local figures.
Critical Commentary
In the second half of the 18th century, Carlos Julião worked as a military cartographer in the Portuguese colonies in America, India and China. In the watercolors produced during his stay in Brazil, the artist describes characteristics of colonial society through small figures representing local characters. As the scholar Carlos Eugênio de Moura points out, this is the most complete work on 18th-century Brazilian customs known to this day.
In these drawings, Carlos Julião focuses on various aspects of everyday life in Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Minas Gerais, such as the world of slave labor, depicting street vendors, sedan-chair carriers and diamond mining activities, as well as the popular festivals of the Rosary and of the Kings, in which each figure appears with characteristic adornments and the musical instruments used in the event. The artist is interested in presenting clothing in detail, in which one can notice, for example, the diversity of fabric patterns.
For art historian Valéria Piccoli, Carlos Julião displays technical skill in his drawings, both in the sharp marking of contours and in the definition of volumes. His work also shows an affinity with the small figures of Joaquim Cândido Guillobel (1787 - 1859), likewise a Portuguese military man.
Posthumous Exhibitions
1982 - São Paulo SP - Pintores Italianos no Brasil [Italian Painters in Brazil], at MAM/SP
1992 - Zurich (Switzerland) - Brasilien: Entdeckung und Selbstentdeckung [Brazil: Discovery and Self-Discovery], at Kunsthaus Zürich
1998 - São Paulo SP - O Universo Mágico do Barroco Brasileiro [The Magical Universe of the Brazilian Baroque], at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1998 - Brasília DF - Brasileiro que nem Eu, que nem Quem? [Brazilian Like Me, Like Whom?], at Ministério das Relações Exteriores
1999 - São Paulo SP - Brasileiro que nem Eu, que nem Quem? [Brazilian Like Me, Like Whom?], at MAB/Faap. Salão Cultural
2000 - Rome (Italy) - Viajantes e Naturalistas Italianos: imagens do Brasil nos séculos XVIII e XIX [Italian Travelers and Naturalists: Images of Brazil in the 18th and 19th Centuries], at Palazzo Santacroce
Source: Itaú Cultural
