Nair de Teffé (Rio de Janeiro RJ 1886 - Niterói RJ 1981)
Draftswoman, painter and caricaturist.
Daughter of Antonio Luiz von Hoonholtz (1837 - 1931), the Baron of Teffé, she moved with her family to Paris in 1901 and for two years attended the painting course taught by Louise Lavrut (1874 - n.d.). In 1905 she returned to Brazil and settled with her family in the city of Petrópolis. There she took up caricature, portraying members of the elite who visited her home. In 1909 she published her first caricature, entitled A Artista Rejane [The Artist Réjane], in the magazine Fon-Fon. The following year she began publishing in that magazine the illustrated column Galeria das Elegâncias [Gallery of Elegance], portraying women of the Rio de Janeiro elite, and contributed to the magazine A Careta with drawings in the section Galeria das Damas Aristocráticas [Gallery of Aristocratic Ladies]. Also in 1910 she published drawings in the Gazeta de Notícias, in the section Galeria dos Smarts. Shortly afterward, in the French magazine Fantasio, she published two pages of her own caricatures under the title Souvenirs de Rio. The following year she received from the French government the rank of Officier de l'Instruction Publique. In 1912 she held a solo exhibition at the headquarters of the Jornal do Comércio, opened by the then President of the Republic, Marshal Hermes da Fonseca (1855 - 1923), whom she married the following year. In the 1920s her drawings returned to the pages of the magazines Fon-Fon and Revista da Semana. After living for almost two decades in Niterói, she moved back to Rio de Janeiro in 1964, where in 1974 she launched the book A Verdade sobre a Revolução de 22 [The Truth about the Revolution of '22].
Critical Commentary
Nair de Teffé was the first, and one of the few, women caricaturists in the Brazilian press. She became known by the pseudonym Rian, with which she signed her works, formed by the letters of her first name in reverse. Daughter of the landowner Baron of Teffé (owner of the Nova Friburgo Palace, later the Catete Palace, now the Museu da República, in Rio de Janeiro), she was cultured, fond of theater and reading, and belonged to the high society of her time. In 1913 she married Marshal Hermes da Fonseca, then President of the Republic.
In the early 20th century, she attended painting courses in France with Louise Lavrut (1874 - ?) and life drawing at the Académie Julian. But it was in Petrópolis, where she lived from 1906, that she began making caricatures more frequently, focusing mainly on friends. During this period she exhibited her work weekly in the shop windows of fashion houses in Rio de Janeiro. In 1909 her work was published for the first time, a caricature of the actress Réjane, in the magazine Fon-Fon!. The following year, the artist devoted herself to drawing prominent female personalities of the time for the Galeria das Elegâncias of Fon-Fon! and for the Galeria das Damas Aristocráticas of the magazine Careta. In this period she started the Galeria dos Smarts in the Gazeta de Notícias, focusing on male figures. She had caricatures published in several French periodicals, such as Le Rire, Excelsior, Fémina and Fantasio. In 1914 she illustrated, with several caricatures of Brazilian personalities, the book The Beautiful Rio de Janeiro, by Alfred Grey Bell, published in London.
Her drawings are close to the work of certain French caricaturists, such as Daniel de Losques (1880 - 1915). Like this artist, Rian produced schematic caricatures in which the figures are composed with agile and elegant lines. For the historian Herman Lima, what is surprising in her work is the spontaneity of the drawing and the power of synthesis her works display, presenting only the essentials of the sitter's character and expression without resorting to distortion.
After a long period without making caricatures, she resumed the activity in the 1940s, encouraged by Herman Lima, stopping only in 1979 for health reasons. Rian, together with Emílio Cardoso Ayres (1890 - 1916), is one of the leading caricaturists to focus on Rio de Janeiro society in the early 20th century.
Critiques
"Despite the undeniable French influence, what is immediately surprising in Rian's art is the spontaneity of the line, the power of synthesis, the ability to dispense with superfluous detail in order to capture exclusively the essential, in the instant grasp of the character and expression of the person caricatured. This is very well observed by the Cuban writer Bernardo G. Barrios: "In Rian's method the canons of distorting caricature do not prevail. It is a simple and precise art, much reminiscent of the handling of De Losques. Like the well-known French caricaturist, Rian prefers essential lines combined with frequent use of black planes. It is the same schematic caricature that has just triumphed in Paris, but crueler, less smiling. They are cartoons in which the grotesque is neither hidden nor disguised; it comes in five or six lines whose effect is completed by the counterpoint of the solid area, which never fully accepts the euphemism of half-tones or of carefully retouched defined shadow. The deformed never appears in these caricatures... It is the keen perception of the characteristic trait and of the individual's psychology, expressed without the need to force the grotesque. A simple and difficult art that makes Rian one of the most important figures in South American humor". The influence of French caricature on Rian's art has been repeatedly pointed out. Indeed, it cannot be denied that, in an attempt at classification, we would have to place her alongside the great Parisian "portrait-chargistes" of the beginning of the century, which does not, however, diminish the high significance of her artistic personality, for she is by no means an imitator with no merit other than transplanting to Brazil the manner of foreign masters, but an artist endowed with great liveliness of observation and creative spontaneity, which is evident in all her works".
Herman Lima
LIMA, Herman. História da caricatura no Brasil III. Rio de Janeiro: J. Olympio, 1963. 1266-1289 p., il. p&b. color. p. 1275-1276.
"Neither her illustrious birth (she was the daughter of the Baron of Teffé) nor her agile and elegant line would have been enough for Rian to achieve the fame she enjoyed, while still very young, from 1913 on. (...) But if some of her caricatures shocked the conservative society of the time, the success of her drawings contributed to the wide popularity of the figure of Nair de Teffé, which lasted well beyond the term of her husband, whom she outlived by 58 years. The first woman caricaturist to achieve fame in Brazil, Rian began her career in Paris, and her portrait-charges had been appreciated since 1909, when they began to be published in the Rio de Janeiro press. Together with Emílio Cardoso Ayres, she was the caricaturist par excellence of early-century Rio de Janeiro society. Both were immune to the influence of Julião Machado, and the presence of the famous French caricaturist Sem can be identified much more clearly in the line of the two artists".
Pedro Corrêa do Lago
LAGO, Pedro Corrêa do. Caricaturistas brasileiros: 1836-1999; prefácio Zuenir Ventura; apresentação. Rio de Janeiro: Sextante Artes, 1999. 215 p., il. color. p. 54.
Solo Exhibitions
1910 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Casa David
1910 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Chapelaria Watson
1912 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at the headquarters of the Jornal do Comércio
Group Exhibitions
1929 - Niterói RJ - 1º Salão Fluminense de Belas Artes
Posthumous Exhibitions
2001 - São Paulo SP - Caricaturistas Brasileiros [Brazilian Caricaturists], at Instituto Cine Cultural
Source: Itaú Cultural
