Thomas Ender (Vienna, Austria 1793 - Idem 1875)
Pintor, watercolorist, engraver and designer.
Twin brother of the painter Johann Ender (1793 - 1854). In 1806, at the age of 13, he began his studies at Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien. Dedicated to landscape painting to watercolor. He receives several awards at the Academy, with emphasis on the 1817 Grand Prix of Painting, in the Landscape category. The award-winning painting is acquired by Prince Metternich (1773 - 1859), who becomes its main sponsor. In 1817, he came to Brazil on the Scientific Expedition of Natural History that accompanies the Austrian delegation, on the occasion of the marriage of Archduchess Leopoldina (1797 - 1826) with D. Pedro I (1798 - 1834). In his short stay, ten months, he paints panoramas of the coast and urban scenes; It depicts churches, public buildings and squares. Despite carrying out just over 700 works on Brazil, he does not produce or publish an album with this material. However, some of his creations appear in the books of naturalistic scientists of the time. This set of works is preserved at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He returns to Austria in 1818 and, a year later, accompanies Emperor Francis I (1768 - 1835) on a trip to Italy, then receiving a scholarship in Rome. In 1824, he was appointed a member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna and remained in office until 1850. From 1829 onwards, in parallel with the attributions of the Academy, he became the official painter of the Chamber at the service of Archduke Johann (1782 - 1859), brother of Emperor Francis I. In this attribution, he paints the landscapes of the Austrian Alps and the Archduke's travels.
Critical Commentary
Thomas Ender, along with his twin brother, Johann Ender (1793 - 1854), enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1806. While Johann shows an interest in historical painting, Thomas embarks on landscape painting. In 1810, he applied for the Gundel Academy Award and wins in the landscape design category. Around 1812, he began to develop his own style in watercolor: he uses a large variation of nuances of colors, draws in more detail the central area of the landscape and suggests a foreground in wide brushstrokes.
In 1815, he receives from the Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna A scholarship that allows you to travel long, travels through the mountainous region of Salzburg, in Tyrol and performs a large number of watercolors. Ender received, in 1817, the Academy's Grand Prize for Painting, relating to landscape painting. The Prince and Chancellor Metternich acquires the painter's landscape, then becomes his great supporter.
In this year, on the occasion of the marriage of the Austrian Archduchess Carolina Josefa Leopoldina with Dom Pedro de Alcântara, Royal heir to the throne of Portugal and Brazil, a scientific expedition of natural history is sent to Brazil, with the aim of gathering information about the country and setting up a Brazilian museum in Vienna. Indicated by Metternich, Ender is part of the role of painter to the expedition team, led by researchers in Bavarian Natural Sciences: Johann von Spix (1781 - 1826) and Carl von Martius (1794 - 1868), among others.
During his permanence in Brazil, Ender makes more than 700 drawings and watercolors. On board the ship, it carries out a circular panorama of the Guanabara Bay and a series of separate views. In Rio de Janeiro, the artist records the churches, public buildings, squares and their surroundings. It portrays Brazilian society at the time and slavery, which focuses critically, is especially interested in the different nationalities of slaves. In 1818, the scientific journey begins and its members are divided to explore different regions. Ender initially travels, with Spix and Martius, the region of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, recording landscapes and cities. On his return to Rio de Janeiro, he gets seriously ill and returns to Austria, taking the drawings and watercolors related to the trip, which are currently largely in the engraving office of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.
Thomas Ender, more than Any other traveler of the period masters landscape painting. In his works, we can notice the careful observation of the vegetation, the care about the perspectives and plans and the fixation of the urban space under different points of observation.
Criticism
"Thomas Ender cultivated oil and watercolor painting, Standing mainly in this last technique, as a landscaper, he worked not only in his homeland and Brazil, but also in Turkey, Greece and other regions. Obviously, the part of his production that matters closely is the one made in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and in the vicinity of both cities. They are drawings and watercolors of extreme sensitivity, hollowed out in an elegant and agile line, and stained with extraordinary skill; made of a jet, keep these watercolors, all the emotion of the first impression felt in front of the motif by the artist. Painters who were in Brazil at the beginning of the 19th century, and the most notable Austrian artists of their time".
José Roberto Teixeira Leite
LEITE, José Roberto Teixeira. Critical Dictionary of Painting in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro: ArtLivre, 1988. p.176-177.
"Ender also observed the daily life of Brazilian society. We can see slaves chained beside their overseer, slaves on their way inside, or in their activities. A moving leaf shows the moment when a slave was being sold; while the buyer examines her teeth, indifferently, a fat priest watches, In addition, what caught the attention of Ender were the different nationalities of slaves. He observed the difference between the Africans of Angola and those of Congo. fabrics, in which, at the time, the white masters were transported. And also the Chinese, who worked on the Royal Farm of Santa Cruz, are found in Ender's drawings". Robert. Thomas Ender (1793-1875) and the Austrian expedition to Brazil. In: _____. Thomas Ender in Brazil (1817-1818): Watercolor belonging to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Austria: Akademische Druck-U, 1997. p. 37.
"Thomas Ender is a traveling painter - as with others in the last century - who did not have his work circulating in Brazil in the 19th century. Possibly his colleagues and connoisseurs in Rio de Janeiro de 1817-1818 saw him in action, painting and drawings of the city. However - by the way - the two 'views' of so much beauty, existing in the historical museum of the city, were watercolors acquired by a Brazilian in Paris, a few years ago, and sold to the City of Rio de Janeiro. Ender did not normally fit into the intrinsic expansion of art in Brazil, being in fact an Austrian painter. However, the existence of a Brazilian theme in his work from that time is useful for the knowledge of aesthetic and historical aspects of our country, with the latter being related by the content aspect. It would be exceptional to the case of the work of Ender, imported in the 20th century, in temporary exhibitions of originals or in photographic reproductions and books, being a large set that was kept in one place, so say, and representative of creative concentration during your trip. It is a type of art import that happens late and is different from imports in architecture, fixed and used in a different way. It is not the case similar or similar to that of imports, for example, from Italian architecture that, in colonial times, could come to Brazil through influences mediated by Portugal. In the latter case, we had the example of the Arsenal de Guerra building project, in Rio de Janeiro, from 1764, made under an Italian model. But, in a form of civilization, architecture presents a more direct and comprehensive use than that of drawings and watercolors".
Mário Barata
Barata, Mário. "Historical" aspect and formal and sensitive evolution in the Brazilian theme of Landscape of Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, Thomas Ender and Félix-Émile Taunay. In: Salgueiro, Heliana Angotti (Coord.). Landscape and Art: The Invention of Nature, The Evolution of the Look. FAPESP, 2000. P. 267
Acerves
Banca Itaú S.A. - São Paulo SP
Kupferstichkabinett der Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien (Austria)
Posthumous exhibitions
1951 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Collective, at the National Library
1954 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the Museu do Ipiranga, on the occasion of the celebrations of the IV Centenary
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the National Library
1972 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Memory of Independence: 1808-1825, at MNBA
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Bishop's House: his time and his space, at the Bishop's house
1991 - São Paulo SP - A Mata, at MAC/USP
1994 - Graz (Austria) Brasilien, at Akademimische Druck
1994 - São Paulo SP - O Brasil dos Viajantes, at Masp
1994 - São Paulo SP - O Olhar e o Ficar. The Search for Paradise: 170 years of immigration of German-speaking peoples, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
1995 - Lisbon (Portugal) - The Brazil of Travelers, at the Centro Cultural de Belém
1997 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Thomas Ender in Brazil 1817-1997, at MNBA
1997 - São Paulo SP - Thomas Ender in Brazil 1817-1997, at Masp
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - O Brazil rediscovered, at Paço Imperial
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The picturesque landscape in Brazil, at the Museu da Chácara do Céu
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Visions of Rio in the Geyer collection, at the CCBB
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazil + 500 rediscovery show. The distant look, at Fundação Bienal
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Carioca Landscape, at MAM/RJ
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Watercolor, at the Light Cultural Center
2010 - São Paulo SP - 6th SP-Arte, at the Bienal Foundation
2011 - Campos do Jordão SP - Art and Culture in Vale do Paraíba, at Palácio Boa Vista
Source: Itaú Cultural
