Henrique Bernardelli (Valparaíso, Chile 1858 - Rio de Janeiro RJ 1936)
Painter, designer, engraver, teacher.
Sculptor's brother Rodolfo Bernardelli (1852-1931) and the guitarist and painter Felix Bernadelli (1862-1905). He arrived with his family in Brazil at the beginning of the 1860s, settled in Rio Grande do Sul. In 1867, he moved to Rio de Janeiro. Three years later, he enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts (Aiba), along with his brother Rodolfo. He is a student of Zeferino da Costa (1840-1915), Agostinho da Motta (1824-1878) and Victor Meirelles (1832-1903). He travels to Italy in 1878. In Rome, he frequents the studio of Domenico Morelli (1826-1901) with whom he studies until 1886. interest and controversy in the local environment. Among other works, Tarantela (1886), Maternity (1878), Messalina (1880), Modelo em Resquito (ca.1881) and at noon are presented.
Learn at the National School of Fine Arts (ENBA) From 1891 to 1905, when he does not accept the renewal of his contract, claiming that the institution needs to renew its staff periodically. together with his brother, he starts teaching in a private studio, on Rua do Ouvidor, in Rio de Janeiro, where they study, among others, Lucilio de Albuquerque (1885-1962) and Georgina de Albuquerque (1885-1962), Eugênio Latour (1874-1942), Hélios Seelinger (1878-1965) and Arthur Timótheo da Costa (1822-1922).
In the 1890s, he carries out important decorative works, such as painting panels for the interior of the Municipal Theater, the panels The Dominion of Man over the Forces of Nature and the Struggle for Freedom, for the National Library, both in Rio de Janeiro, and for the Museu Paulista, in São Paul. The 22 frescoed medallions that adorn the facade of the current building of the National Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA) deserve special mention, displayed in the ENBA Hall of 1916. In 1931, several painters dissatisfied with the model of Enba's teaching are collectively organized by creating a group focused on technical improvement and the reformulation of artistic education, giving it the name of Núcleo Bernardelli in honor of teachers Henrique and Rodolfo.
Critiques
"Bernardelli was the first Brazilian painter to extract all the fundamentals of his artistic experience from the processes, technical habits and colors of Italian painting practiced by many 19th-century artists (...). sentimentality in spite of the theme that, in another painter, could give rise to psychological ramblings or vulgar pieguismos. The reflection around themes was not his way. His experiences reflected and unfolded in his paintings. sacred or profane, to contact with the real model without major commitments to the transcendental, in the first case, and sentimentality in the other. The psychological constitution and emotional formation of Bernardelli was that of the man who gave primacy to matter. His consciousness and art had only commitments to the effects he admitted as reality. It is a solid and well-structured reality under which, painting, it did not employ tenuous resources, transparencies or reflections of light and easy effects. He applied paints in the middle of the paste and marked brushstrokes, following, most of the time, the movement of the represented shapes and thus achieving an evident sense of volume".
Edson Motta and the MNBA team
National Museum of Fine Arts. Presentation Roberto Daniel Martins Parreira; Text Edson Motta. Rio de Janeiro: Funarte, 1979. 196 p. , Il. Color.
"(...) After eight years of study in Rome, Henrique Bernardelli (...) imposes himself immediately and without arousing controversy over the work he brought and the remarkable personality he showed, except on the part of some more limited critics. These were strange the influences that brought from the Italian painting of the end of the century (...). It only happened that Henrique Bernardelli escaped that face of the artistic officialism of Paris, which, conforming everything that could be admitted as a valid painting in our midst, ended up, by force of habit, to resemble a remarkable condition of national creativity. (...) What was most particular about the work brought by the young painter newly arrived was the aspect of a new painting for what was known here. Not exactly the difference between a French academicism and another Italian, but mainly because the artist gets rid of conservative technical and aesthetic concerns and open a new vision for painting (...). It soon becomes apparent, on the screens brought by Henrique, that there was much popular, of a tendency to accentuate the naturalness of things, the facts, in short, a vision subordinated to the direct suggestions of nature, which required technical detachment and the ability to improvise for the dominion over new effects. visuals".
Quirino Campofiorito
Campofiorito, Quirino. History of Brazilian painting in the 19th century. Preface Carlos Roberto Maciel Levy. Rio de Janeiro: Pinakotheke, 1983. 292 P. , il color
"Bernardelli is a robust young man endowed with omnimode talent and, by heredity, a true artistic feeling. His works inculcate a restless, nervous, greedy temperament of impressions, one of these athletic organizations, equipped with wide spatulas, strong chests, muscles developed and reinforced by the hygienic exercise of outdoor walks, by the of the mountains. His work is vigorous, original, full of heat, full of boldness. Full of boldness! Yes, because it is new, because it goes beyond the ruined systems of academic clothing, because it makes you feel the essential character of the object, according to the expression of H. Taine; Because it moves and is personal and is true. See a painting of master, any of the 'our masters' and while his work obtains, solely, from our attention, a qualifier, sometimes distilled by complacency; The work of that impresses us, awakens some new emotion, provokes admiration or hatred. Here's where the artist's superiority is".
Gonzaga Duque
Duque, Gonzaga. Brazilian Art. Introduction Tadeu Chiarelli. Campinas: Mercado de Letras, 1995. 270 P.
Individual exhibitions
1886 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at ENBA
Collective exhibitions
1870 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 21st General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at AIBA
1884 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 26th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at AIBA - 1st Class Gold Medal
1886 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Nicolau Facchinetti and Henrique Bernardelli, in the national press
1887 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Antônio Parreiras, Castagento and Henrique Bernardelli, at the Grêmio de Letras e Artes.
1889 - Paris (France) - Universal Exhibition - Bronze Medal
1890 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1894 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1895 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at ENBA
1896 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1897 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, ENBA
1898 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1900 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 7th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1901 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at ENBA
1902 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 9th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at ENBA
1903 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 10th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, ENBA
1904 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 11th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1905 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 12th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1907 - Rio de Janeiro Janeiro RJ - 14th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1909 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 16th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1910 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 17th General Exhibition of Belas Arts, at Enba
1911 - São Paulo SP - First Brazilian Exhibition of Fine Arts, at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios
1916 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 23rd 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
1929 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 36th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1930 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 37th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1931 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Galeria Irmãos Bernardelli, at MNBA
1931 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Revolutionary Hall, at Enba
1933 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 40th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1934 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd Salon of the Bernardelli Nucleus, ENBA
1935 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4th Salon of the Bernardelli Nucleus, at ENBA
Posthumous exhibitions
1948 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Retrospective of painting in Brazil, in the MNBA
1950 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A century of Brazilian painting: 1850-1950, at MNBA
1970 - São Paulo SP - Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo 1970, Pesp
1976 - São Paulo SP - Henrique Bernardelli: a collection of drawings, at Pesp
1976 - São Paulo SP - The portrait in the Pinacoteca collection, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
1980 - São Paulo SP - The Brazilian landscape: 1650-1976, at Paço das Artes
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 7th National Salon of Plastic Arts - Salão de 31, at MNBA
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: synthesis of Brazilian art and culture, at the Bienal Foundation
1986 - São Paulo SP - Nineteenth: a turn in the century, at Pesp
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Henrique Bernardelli, at MNBA
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death, at the MNBA
1989 - Fortaleza CE - Brazilian art from the 19th and 20th centuries in the Ceará collections: paintings and drawings, in the cultural space of Unifor
1991 - São Paulo SP - Desire at the Academy: 1847-1916, at Pesp
1994 - São Paulo SP - A critical look at the 19th century collection, at Pesp
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Mostra Caixa Econômica Federal collection, at Espaço Arte BarraShopping
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition. Art in the 19th century, at the Bienal Foundation
2000 - Porto Alegre RS - From Frans Post to Eliseu Visconti: Collection National Museum of Fine Arts-RJ, at Margs
2001 - São Paulo SP - 30 masters of the Painting in Brazil, at Masp
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Watercolor, at the Light Cultural Center
2001 - São Paulo SP - Trajectory of light in Brazilian art, at Itaú Cultural
2002 - Brasília DF - Barão do Rio Branco: his work and his time, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Palácio do Itamaraty
2002 - Niterói RJ - Brazilian art on paper: 19th and 20th centuries, at Solar do Jambeiro
2002 - São Paulo SP - Image and identity: a look at the history in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, in the Banco Santos Cultural Institute
Source: Itaú Cultural
