Georgina de Albuquerque (Taubaté SP 1885 - Rio de Janeiro RJ 1962)
Georgina de Albuquerque was a Brazilian painter, draftswoman and teacher. At the age of 15, she began her artistic training with the Italian painter Rosalbino Santoro (1858 - n.d.). In 1904, she moved to Rio de Janeiro, where she enrolled at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (Enba) and studied with Henrique Bernardelli (1858 - 1936). In 1906, she married the painter Lucílio de Albuquerque (1877 - 1939) and traveled to France. In Paris, she attended the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian, where she was a student of Henri Royer. She returned to Brazil in 1911, exhibited in São Paulo and, from then on, took part regularly in the Exposição Geral de Belas Artes [General Exhibition of Fine Arts]. From 1927 to 1948, she taught artistic drawing at Enba and, in 1935, became a teacher in the decorative arts course at the Instituto de Artes of the Universidade do Distrito Federal. In 1940, she founded the Museu Lucílio de Albuquerque in her home in the Laranjeiras neighborhood, in Rio de Janeiro, and created a pioneering drawing and painting course for children. From 1952 to 1954, she served as director of Enba.
Critical Commentary
Georgina de Albuquerque is one of the leading Brazilian women to establish herself as an artist in the early 20th century. In her paintings, the artist takes Impressionism and its offshoots as a reference. They display a palette of luminous colors, used with sensitivity. Albuquerque's most frequent subjects are the nude, the portrait and the landscape. In Raio de Sol [Sunbeam], n.d., or Dia de Verão [Summer Day], c.1920, with broad brushstrokes, she explores the play of light and chromatic vibration. From 1920 onward, she began to work with a more sober palette and to paint scenes of popular life, such as Duas Roceiras [Two Country Women], n.d., or No Cafezal [In the Coffee Plantation], c.1930, among others.
Critiques
"(...) Mrs. Georgina is a painter of light colors, sure draftsmanship and good technique. Compared with his wife, Lucílio appears to us as a painter of greater inspiration, but less successful in technique. (...) On the other hand, she lacks a great deal of inner inspiration and, in her pursuit of sunlight effects, has given the flesh tones of some of her female nudes an evidently false coloring, of milk, rose and gelatin. Some pictures of this kind give the impression that a light placed behind the main figure would fill the foreground of the canvas with reflections. Forgive us, Mrs. Georgina. But we would like to see her concern herself less with the effects of light on female forms and apply her magnificent talent to more ambitious compositions, which are not variations on the eternal theme of the girl lying in the sun, chaste and naive. She must admit that her talent can produce much more. These small flaws in no way diminish the merits of the artist, who is an exuberant organization of talent, capable of doing much for Brazilian art. She has sensitivity, warmth and vocation, and she sets about solving the difficulties of her art with the enthusiasm of belief. Whoever trusts their own strength in this way can do much for the arts".
Angyone Costa
COSTA, Angyone. A Inquietação das abelhas. Rio de Janeiro: Pimenta de Mello & Cia., 1927, p. 18.
"(...) Her art is a constant renewal of manners, motifs and coloring (...) As for subjects, one cannot say there is a marked preference. Landscape, the figure, still life, seascape, portrait and compositions are all approached by her with enthusiasm, revealing in all of them the most varied facets of her talent".
Regina Liberalli Laemmert
PONTUAL, Roberto. Dicionário das artes plásticas no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 1969.
Testimonials
"(...) I feel that I was born a painter and that the impressions of the Brazilian landscape contributed greatly to this aesthetic passion of mine. A true Brazilian, born in the interior of the former province of São Paulo, I spent my childhood surrounded by the picturesque scenes of Brazilian life of that time. In my municipality, I still found the fertility of the São Paulo land almost untouched. Neither the railways nor the highways that cross it today existed. These elements of the landscape did not impress my early childhood. On the other hand, the sun was the same, the joy of the young and flowering land was the same, and the simple, rural life of the people was perhaps, surely was, more sincere, more exact, more our own. Even at home, without leaving my Taubaté, as a very small girl, I was already trying out my sketches. I chalked, I scribbled rough drawings, I made figures. My mother, who was a very intelligent and lucid spirit, soon understood my inclination for painting and, as far as circumstances allowed, made everything easier for its development and perfection. I was still a child when an Italian painter, Rosalino Santoro, turned up there, seeking in the warm bosom of the young land a refuge from the ailments that were undermining his health. I keep a fond memory of this first pioneer of my pictorial inclination. (...) My mother began asking him for the lessons she wished to give me. Santoro resisted. But, because of his own illness, Santoro needed a family environment, and it was in our house that he spent his best hours, receiving the respectful and affectionate treatment that is traditional in the Brazilian family. (...) Before Santoro realized it, he had become my teacher, the first I had in painting. Later, I saw an exhibition by Parreiras in São Paulo. I was dazzled, and I could no longer avoid coming to Rio, where the Escola de Belas Artes fascinated me. I came. I did the first year. I was a student of Henrique Bernardelli. I met Lucílio (...) We got married. We left for Europe poor, with only the baggage of two students, and I lived there for five years. In Paris my main teachers were Gervais, at the École des Beaux-Arts, and Royer, at the Julien course. Afterward I worked on my own. I visited museums and tried to paint, to paint a lot, at all hours, at every moment of the day. Not even when my two sons, Dante and Flamingo, were small did I go a single day without working. That is what I always do, constantly, at every moment".
Georgina de Albuquerque
COSTA, Angyone. A Inquietação das abelhas. Rio de Janeiro: Pimenta de Mello & Cia., 1927, p. 90-91.
Solo Exhibitions
1914 - São Paulo SP - Solo
1914 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo
Group Exhibitions
1903 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 10th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1905 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 12th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1906 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 13th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1907 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 14th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1909 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 16th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba - first-degree honorable mention
1911 - São Paulo SP - First Brazilian Fine Arts Exhibition, at Liceu de Artes e Ofícios
1912 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 19th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba - small silver medal
1912 - São Paulo SP - Second Brazilian Fine Arts Exhibition, at Liceu de Artes e Ofícios
1913 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 20th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1914 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 21st General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1915 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 22nd General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1916 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 23rd General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba - large silver medal
1917 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 24th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1918 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 25th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1919 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 26th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba - gold medal
1920 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 27th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1921 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 28th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1922 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 29th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1923 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 30th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1924 - New York (United States) - National Association of Women Painters and Sculptures
1924 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 31st General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1925 - Los Angeles (United States) - First Pan-American Exhibition of Oil Painting
1925 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 32nd General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1926 - Austin (United States) - Art Department State Fair of Texas
1926 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 33rd General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1927 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 34th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1928 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 35th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1928 - São Paulo SP - Grupo Almeida Júnior, at Palácio das Arcadas
1929 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 36th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1930 - New York (United States) - The First Representative Collection of Paintings by Brazilian Artists, at International Art Center, Nicholas Roerich Museum
1930 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 37th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1933 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 40th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1934 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1937 - São Paulo SP - 5th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1940 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective Exhibition: Works by the Great Masters of Painting and Their Disciples
1940 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Salão de Arte Almeida Júnior da Prefeitura Municipal de São Paulo
1941 - São Paulo SP - 13th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon - silver medal and 1st Fernando Costa Prize
1942 - São Paulo SP - 8th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1943 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1944 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Self-Portrait Exhibition, at MNBA
1944 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 50th National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA
1944 - São Paulo SP - 10th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1945 - São Paulo SP - 11th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1947 - São Paulo SP - 13th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1948 - São Paulo SP - 14th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1949 - São Paulo SP - 15th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia - gold medal and 1st State Governor Prize
1950 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Century of Brazilian Painting: 1850 - 1950, at MNBA
1951 - São Paulo SP - 16th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1953 - São Paulo SP - 18th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1954 - Goiânia GO - Exhibition of the National Congress of Intellectuals
1956 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Railway Workers' Salon
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Nude in Art, at MNBA
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Mother and Child Art Salon
1960 - São Paulo SP - Women's Contribution to the Visual Arts in Brazil, at MAM/SP
Posthumous Exhibitions
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Lucílio and Georgina de Albuquerque Exhibition (commemorating the centenary of Lucílio de Albuquerque's birth), at MNBA
1980 - São Paulo SP - The Brazilian Landscape: 1650-1976, at Paço das Artes
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Universe of Carnival: Images and Reflections, at Acervo Galeria de Arte
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: A Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1985 - São Paulo SP - 100 Itaú Works, at Masp
1986 - São Paulo SP - Dezenovevinte: A Turn of the Century, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1988 - São Paulo SP - Brasiliana: Man and the Land, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1989 - Fortaleza CE - Brazilian Art of the 19th and 20th Centuries in Ceará Collections: Paintings and Drawings, at Espaço Cultural da Unifor
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1998 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo Iconography in Private Collections, at Museu da Casa Brasileira
2000 - Porto Alegre RS - From Frans Post to Eliseu Visconti: Collection of the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes-RJ, at Margs
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Human Figure in the Itaú Collection, at Itaú Cultural
2000 - São Paulo SP - Coffee, at Banco Real
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Watercolor, at Centro Cultural Light
2002 - Brasília DF - Barão do Rio Branco: His Work and His Time, at Ministério das Relações Exteriores. Palácio do Itamaraty
2002 - São Paulo SP - Image and Identity: A Look at History in the Collection of the Museu de Belas Artes, at Instituto Cultural Banco Santos
2004 - São Paulo SP - Women Painters, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2004 - São Paulo SP - The Price of Seduction: From Corset to Silicone, at Itaú Cultural
Source: Itaú Cultural
