Leandro Joaquim (Rio de Janeiro ca.1738 - idem ca.1798)
Painter, set designer and architect.
The critic Mário de Andrade (1893 - 1945) considered him one of the most outstanding artists of the second half of the 18th century who worked innovatively within the Portuguese artistic tradition. He was a student of the painter João de Sousa (17--? - 17--?) in Rio de Janeiro. Some scholars credit him with an unrealized project for rebuilding the Recolhimento de Nossa Senhora do Parto. He worked with the sculptor Mestre Valentim (ca.1745 - 1813) on drawings and urban projects. The scholar Teixeira Leite considers him one of the best painters of the Rio de Janeiro School, in both technique and style, notable for his fluent drawing and harmonious color. Attributed to him are copies of two works by João Francisco Muzzi (18th century - 1802): Incêndio [Fire] and Reedificação do Recolhimento de Nossa Senhora do Parto [Rebuilding of the Recolhimento de Nossa Senhora do Parto], for the church of the same name in Rio de Janeiro. He also painted three side panels for the chancel of the Igreja de São Sebastião do Castelo and the painting Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte [Our Lady of the Good Death] for the Igreja da Ordem Terceira de Nossa Senhora da Conceição e Boa Morte. Also attributed to the artist are six oval panels made at the end of the 18th century for one of the pavilions of the Passeio Público in Rio de Janeiro - Cena Marítima [Maritime Scene], Pesca da Baleia na Baía de Guanabara [Whaling in Guanabara Bay], Procissão ou Romaria Marítima ao Hospital dos Lázaros [Maritime Procession or Pilgrimage to the Lazarus Hospital], Revista Militar no Largo do Paço [Military Review at Largo do Paço] - and two views of the city - Vista da Igreja da Glória [View of the Glória Church] and Vista da Lagoa do Boqueirão e dos Arcos da Carioca [View of the Boqueirão Lagoon and the Carioca Arches]. He also painted the portraits of the viceroy Dom Luís de Vasconcelos e Sousa (1740 - 1807), the Count of Rezende and Captain-Major Gregório Francisco de Miranda, now in the collection of the Museu Histórico Nacional - MHN. His paintings are striking for their color and are among the first landscapes, seascapes and city views made in the country by Brazilians.
Critical Commentary
The mulatto Leandro Joaquim stands out, for the critic Mário de Andrade (1893 - 1945), among the artists of the second half of the 18th century who worked innovatively within the Portuguese artistic tradition. In this period, he was a student of the painter João de Sousa (17--? - 17--?) in Rio de Janeiro. Some scholars credit him with an unrealized project for rebuilding the Recolhimento de Nossa Senhora do Parto. He designed sets for the theater of Manuel Luís, one of the first playhouses in Brazil, founded around 1769, whose Portuguese owner had been an actor, musician and dancer in his homeland. He worked with the artist Mestre Valentim (ca.1745 - 1813) on drawings and urban projects.
For the scholar Teixeira Leite, Leandro Joaquim is one of the best painters of the Rio de Janeiro School, in both technique and style, notable for his fluent drawing and harmonious color. Attributed to him are copies of two works by João Francisco Muzzi (18th century - 1802): Incêndio and Reedificação do Recolhimento de Nossa Senhora do Parto, for the church of the same name in Rio de Janeiro. He painted three side panels for the chancel of the Igreja de São Sebastião do Castelo and the painting Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte for the Igreja da Ordem Terceira de Nossa Senhora da Conceição e Boa Morte. Also attributed to him are six oval panels, made at the end of the 18th century for one of the pavilions of the Passeio Público in Rio de Janeiro: Vista de uma Esquadra Inglesa na Baía de Guanabara [View of an English Squadron in Guanabara Bay], which would depict the arrival in Rio de Janeiro of an English fleet bound for Australia in 1787; Pesca da Baleia na Baía de Guanabara, on that economic activity; Procissão Marítima [Maritime Procession], reminiscent of Venetian maritime festivals; Revista Militar no Largo do Paço, recording a military parade held at the inauguration of the Largo do Paço; Vista da Igreja e Praia da Glória [View of the Glória Church and Beach]; and Vista da Lagoa do Boqueirão e do Aqueduto Santa Teresa [View of the Boqueirão Lagoon and the Santa Teresa Aqueduct]. The paintings are striking for their color and are among the first landscapes, seascapes and city views made in the country by Brazilians. In these canvases, Leandro Joaquim shows various aspects of everyday life in Rio de Janeiro and carefully records the figures and human types and the details of buildings: balconies, porches, towers and belfries, water wheels, fortresses and factories. For historian Luciano Migliaccio, the panels correspond to the urbanization program for the city of Rio de Janeiro promoted by the viceroy to equip the new capital with adequate infrastructure. Placed in a site of public recreation, their didactic purpose was to extol the nation's products and landscape.
Leandro Joaquim also painted portraits of important historical figures, such as the Count of Bobadela and Captain-Major Gregório Francisco de Miranda. For the Rio critic Gonzaga Duque (1863 - 1911), his portrait of the viceroy Dom Luís de Vasconcelos e Sousa (1740 - 1807), of whom he was a friend, is executed with a precise and delicate line that manages to convey the personality of the sitter, a simple man who encouraged the arts of his time. For the critic, the artist, who in his early works did not know how to handle tones and light his pictures, gradually gained greater technical command, as in Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte (late 18th century), which stands out among contemporary works for its unity of action, the expressiveness of its figures and its harmony of color.
Critiques
"In the author of the elliptical canvases of the Passeio Público one perceives, at a glance, an artist weak in perspective, who has not yet mastered the art of landscape painting, especially as regards light, but who is, on the other hand, like all primitives, concerned with recording the smallest details of our buildings, such as balconies, porches with their typical columns, the shapes of church towers and belfries, water wheels, fortresses, factories, etc., whether in the foreground or the background. But where his pictorial talent is most refined is in faithfully portraying the figures and human types that people these delightful canvases in profusion, true primitives of Brazilian art, as it freed itself from purely religious painting to turn to landscape."
Gilberto Ferrez
FERREZ, Gilberto. As primeiras telas paisagísticas da cidade. Revista do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional, Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Educação e Cultura, n. 17, p. 219-237, 1969.
"But the most important proof that there was a collective surge of Brazilian raciality lies in the imposition of the mulatto. For two centuries the Colony, solely by force of its economic circumstances, and without the slightest political intervention from Portugal, had been enriching itself with some artistic achievements. (...) New artists begin to be born in the Colony who deform the overseas lesson without any possible systematization. And among these artists the mulatto shines greatly.
Caldas Barbosa and Mestre Valentim are mulattos. Leandro Joaquim, of the same period and one of the best painters in Rio, is also of mixed race. Father José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767 - 1830), very much a mulatto, is the most notable of our colonial musicians. (...) And Aleijadinho is yet another mulatto. These examples suffice to understand this side, not dominant but intensely visible, of how the Brazilian race was asserting itself at that moment."
Mário de Andrade
ANDRADE, Mário de. Aspectos das artes plásticas no Brasil. 3.ed. Belo Horizonte: Itatiaia, 1984. 96 p. (Obras completas de Mário de Andrade, 12). p. 13. [Texto escrito originalmente em 1928 e publicado no livro O Aleijadinho e Álvares de Azevedo. Rio de Janeiro: R. A. Editora, 1935.]
Posthumous Exhibitions
1965 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exposição Retrospectiva de Arte Sacra Brasileira [Retrospective Exhibition of Brazilian Sacred Art]
1988 - São Paulo SP - A Mão Afro-Brasileira [The Afro-Brazilian Hand], at MAM/SP
1994 - São Paulo SP - Um Olhar Crítico sobre o Acervo do Século XIX [A Critical Look at the 19th-Century Collection], at Pinacoteca do Estado
1998 - São Paulo SP - O Universo Mágico do Barroco Brasileiro [The Magical Universe of the Brazilian Baroque], at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Paisagem Carioca [The Rio Landscape], at MAM/RJ
Source: Itaú Cultural
