Modesto Brocos (Santiago de Compostela, Espanha 1852 - Rio de Janeiro RJ 1936)
Modesto Brocos was a painter, printmaker, illustrator, draftsman and teacher. He first studied drawing with his brother Isidoro, a sculptor and secretary of the Academy of Fine Arts of La Coruña, Spain. Around 1870, he traveled to Argentina, where he worked as an illustrator. In 1872, he moved to Brazil and, three years later, enrolled as a non-degree student at the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes (AIBA) in Rio de Janeiro, studying under Victor Meirelles (1832-1903) and Zeferino da Costa (1840-1915). In 1877, he took advanced courses in Paris at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts as a student of Henri Lehmann (1814-1882). He later attended the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and the studio of the painter Federico Madrazo y Kuntz (1815-1894), both in Madrid. In 1882, he studied at the Accademia Chigi in Rome. His artistic production includes genre scenes, portraits and landscapes.
Back in Brazil, in 1891 he took up the chair of figure drawing at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (ENBA), at the invitation of the sculptor Rodolfo Bernardelli (1852-1931), a post he held until his death. His students included Quirino Campofiorito (1902-1993), Reis Júnior (1903-1985) and Sigaud (1899-1979). Brocos also wrote books on art education, such as A Questão do Ensino das Belas Artes [The Question of Fine Arts Teaching] (1915) and Retórica dos Pintores [Painters' Rhetoric] (1933). He also stood out for encouraging the development of printmaking in Brazil. In 1952, the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes (MNBA) in Rio de Janeiro held an exhibition of his work to mark the centenary of his birth.
Critical Commentary
The Spanish painter Modesto Brocos traveled to Argentina around 1870, where he worked as an illustrator. In 1872, he settled in Rio de Janeiro. He made illustrations for the periodical O Mequetrefe, in which, as the art historian Teixeira Leite points out, he introduced a novelty: the interspersing of drawing and text. In 1877, the artist went to Paris, Madrid and Rome to further his training. During this period he produced one of his most important history paintings: A Defesa de Lugo [The Defense of Lugo], 1886.
At the invitation of the sculptor Rodolfo Bernardelli (1852 - 1931), he returned to Brazil in 1891 to take up the post of professor of figure drawing at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes - Enba. In 1892, he painted Engenho da Mandioca [Cassava Mill], which focuses on rural customs and stands out for its use of color and light. Rural themes became a constant in his production, as in Descascar Goiabas [Peeling Guavas] and A Peneirar Café [Sifting Coffee], both from 1901. A Redenção de Cam [The Redemption of Ham], 1895, one of his most famous paintings, has, for Teixeira Leite, an allegorical character and should be understood as an allusion to the progressive whitening of the Black population, within the concept of eugenics in vogue at the end of the 19th century.
Critiques
"His technique is European, learned in Italy and Spain. The drawing is correct, though somewhat cold: one notices a documentary concern incompatible with the spirit of the 20th century. (...) Brocos is not an innovator, either in printmaking or, much less, in painting: his greatest audacity consisted in using an expressive medium practically unknown in our country, while subordinating it to the lessons of his predecessors (in the work under examination the influence of Eugène Delacroix is evident), and cautiously avoiding looking to the future".
José Roberto Teixeira Leite
PONTUAL, Roberto. Dicionário das artes plásticas no Brasil. Apresentação de Antônio Houaiss. Textos de Mário Barata et al. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 1969.
Collections
Museu Nacional de Belas Artes - MNBA - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Museu Histórico da República - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Biblioteca Nacional Collection - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo Collection/Brazil - São Paulo SP
Acervo Galeria de Arte - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Fadel Collection - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Group Exhibitions
1876 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 24th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Aiba
1882 - Paris (France) - Official Fine Arts Salon
1887 - Madrid (Spain) - Group show
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 - gold medal
1896 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1897 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at 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, at 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
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 - silver medal
1908 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 15th 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 Fine Arts, at Enba
1911 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 18th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
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
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
1917 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 24th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1927 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 34th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
Posthumous Exhibitions
n.d. - New York (United States) - Exhibition opened at the Roerich Museum with other painters of the 19th and 20th centuries
1948 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Retrospective of Painting in Brazil, at MNBA
1950 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Century of Brazilian Painting: 1850-1950, at MNBA
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Europe in Brazilian Art, at MNBA
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Work in Art, at MNBA
1976 - São Paulo SP - The Portrait in the Pinacoteca Collection, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1980 - São Paulo SP - The Brazilian Landscape: 1650-1976, at Paço das Artes
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Recent Donations 82-84, at MNBA
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: A Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - São Paulo SP - 100 Itaú Works, at Masp
1986 - São Paulo SP - Dezenovevinte: A Turn of the Century, 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
1989 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Painting of the 19th and 20th Centuries: Works from the Banco Itaú Collection, at Itaugaleria
1994 - São Paulo SP - A Critical Look at the 19th-Century Collection, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1995 - Campinas SP - From Seascape to Still Life
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Printmaking Show. Brazilian Modern Printmaking: Museu Nacional de Belas Artes Collection, at MNBA
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazil Rediscovered, at Paço Imperial
2000 - Porto Alegre RS - Biblioteca Nacional: Rare Works, at Margs
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brasil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition, at Fundação Bienal
2001 - São Paulo SP - Trajectory of Light in Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
Source: Itaú Cultural
