Theodoro José da Silva Braga (Belém PA 1872 - São Paulo SP 1953)
Painter, art historian, illustrator, decorator, teacher.
He began his career as a painter while still a student at the Recife Law School, from which he graduated in 1893. He studied with the landscape painter Telles Júnior (1851 - 1914). In 1894, he moved to Rio de Janeiro and enrolled at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes - Enba [National School of Fine Arts], where he studied with Belmiro de Almeida (1858 - 1935), Zeferino da Costa (1840 - 1915) and Bérard (1846 - 1910). He also worked as an illustrator for the Rio de Janeiro magazine Vera Cruz, founded in 1898, a publication that brought together authors linked to the Symbolist movement. After graduating, he won the foreign travel prize in 1899. He settled in Paris and took lessons from Jean-Paul Laurens (1838 - 1921), one of the most important masters of French history painting during the Third Republic, and specialized in that genre. He returned to Brazil in 1905 and held his first exhibition in Rio de Janeiro. That same year he went back to Pará, where he painted Fundação da Cidade de Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará [Founding of the City of Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará], commissioned by the municipality of Belém. In 1918, he wrote A Arte no Pará, 1888-1918: Retrospecto Histórico dos Últimos Trinta Anos [Art in Pará, 1888-1918: A Historical Retrospective of the Last Thirty Years]. In 1921, he settled in São Paulo, where he taught at the Instituto de Engenharia Mackenzie and at the Escola de Belas Artes [School of Fine Arts]. He became director of the school, a post he held until his death. Among his activities in São Paulo, a highlight was the creation of the Escola Brasileira de Arte [Brazilian Art School], which offered music, drawing and painting classes to children and adolescents. In 1942, he published the book Artistas Pintores do Brasil [Painter Artists of Brazil], as well as technical drawing books and articles in newspapers and magazines.
Critiques
"Theodoro Braga was the predestined pictorial discoverer, startling our snobbery with the stylization of flora and fauna, in a healthy analytical understanding from which we have so senselessly and barbarously distanced ourselves in art. He is not a mere colorist of canvases. A man of culture, not even lacking the law degree that he does not use and does not flaunt (...) from early on he stood out as a most vigorous and sincere artist, without dishonesty or self-promotion".
Carlos Rubens
RUBENS, Carlos. Pequena história das artes plásticas no Brasil. São Paulo: Nacional, 1941.
"His canvases are technically academic, but they convey an inspiration that gives them a distinctive place in our painting. His most original production lies in the field of the decorative arts, in which, through a broad and varied output, he seeks a stylization of Amazonian fauna and flora based on Marajoara art".
Quirino Campofiorito
CAMPOFIORITO, Quirino. História da pintura brasileira no século XIX. Rio de Janeiro: Pinakotheke, 1983.
Collections
Palácio do Governo do Estado de São Paulo [São Paulo State Government Palace] - São Paulo SP
Museu de Arte de Belém [Belém Art Museum] - Belém PA
Museu Goeldi [Goeldi Museum] - Belém PA
Solo Exhibitions
1905 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - First solo exhibition
1906 - Belém PA - Solo
1906 - Recife PE - Solo
1912 - Belém PA - Solo
1925 - São Paulo SP - Solo
1926 - Recife PE - Solo
1936 - São Paulo SP - Solo
Group Exhibitions
1905 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 12ª Exposição Geral de Belas Artes [12th General Fine Arts Exhibition], at Enba
1922 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 29ª Exposição Geral de Belas Artes [29th General Fine Arts Exhibition], at Enba - small gold medal
1923 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 30ª Exposição Geral de Belas Artes [30th General Fine Arts Exhibition], at Enba - large silver medal
1924 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 31ª Exposição Geral de Belas Artes [31st General Fine Arts Exhibition], at Enba
1925 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 32ª Exposição Geral de Belas Artes [32nd General Fine Arts Exhibition], at Enba
1927 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 34ª Exposição Geral de Belas Artes [34th General Fine Arts Exhibition], at Enba
1928 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 35ª Exposição Geral de Belas Artes [35th General Fine Arts Exhibition], at Enba - small gold medal
1928 - São Paulo SP - Grupo Almeida Júnior [Almeida Júnior Group], at Palácio das Arcadas
1929 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 36ª Exposição Geral de Belas Artes [36th General Fine Arts Exhibition], at Enba
1930 - New York (United States) - The First Representative Collection of Paintings by Brazilian Artists, at the Nicholas Roerich Museum
1930 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 37ª Exposição Geral de Belas Artes [37th General Fine Arts Exhibition], at Enba
1933 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 39ª Exposição Geral de Belas Artes [39th General Fine Arts Exhibition], at Enba
1934 - São Paulo SP - 1º Salão Paulista de Belas Artes [1st São Paulo Fine Arts Salon], at Rua 11 de Agosto
1937 - São Paulo SP - 5º Salão Paulista de Belas Artes [5th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon]
1939 - São Paulo SP - 6º Salão Paulista de Belas Artes [6th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon]
1940 - São Paulo SP - 7º Salão Paulista de Belas Artes [7th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon], at Salão de Arte Almeida Júnior da Prefeitura Municipal
1940 - São Paulo SP - Exposição Retrospectiva: obras dos grandes mestres da pintura e seus discípulos [Retrospective Exhibition: Works by the Great Masters of Painting and Their Disciples]
1946 - São Paulo SP - 12º Salão Paulista de Belas Artes [12th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1947 - São Paulo SP - 13º Salão Paulista de Belas Artes [13th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon], at Galeria Prestes Maia - small gold medal
Source: Itaú Cultural
