Front: Cândido Portinari (1903-1962), Brazilian painter

Portinari studied at the National School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro. In 1928 a European fellowship enabled him to visit France, Italy, Spain, and England. Upon his return he broke with his earlier somewhat academic style to paint scenes of Brazilian life, characteristically soft brown in tonality with small figures schematically represented by flecks of color and play of light.

His painting Coffee (National Museum of Fine Arts, Rio de Janeiro) revealed an interest in the expression of plastic form that became a dominant factor in his subsequent works. In the 1940s Portinari turned to a more fluid and expressionistic style, touched with surrealism, as in the series of frescoes in the Hispanic Foundation, and the Library of Congress and in paintings such as the Scarecrow (Museum of Modern Art, New York City). In 1955 he executed two large murals of War and Peace for the United Nations General Assembly Building, New York City.

Back: Cândido Portinari painting

Front: Cândido Mariano de Silva Rondon (1865-1956), Brazilian explorer

Rondon was most famous for exploring with Teddy Roosevelt during Roosevelt's exploration of the Rio Roosevelt in the Mato Grosso state in Brazil. The current Brazilian state of Rondônia is named after him. He is the founder of the Fundação Nacional do Indio or Funai. He was also promoted to the rank of Marshal, making him Brazil's highest-ranking military officer ever.

Back: Two indian children and local food from Amazonia

Front: Antonio Carlos Gomes (1836-1896), African-Brazilian composer

Gomes studied at the Musical Conservatory of Rio de Janeiro and in 1861 performed his first opera A Noite do Castelo. In 1863, he composed his second opera Joana de Flandres.

These two pieces convinced Emperor D. Pedroll to offer him a prize to study in Italy. He studied in Milan at the local Conservatory until 1866 when he graduated as a composer-conductor. He soon became famous within the European artistic world with his most notorious opera, Ó Guarani, performed in 1870 at the Milan Scala Theater, a place of great lyrical spectacles. Gomes wrote and performed many other notable musical plays, such as the operas Fosca (1873) considered by some critics as his masterpiece Salvador Rosa (1874), Maria Tudor (1878), O Éscravo (1889), Condor (1891), and the symphonic poem Colombo (1892).

His gratitude to the Emperor, deposed in 1889, prevented him from accepting the invitation of the new Brazilian Government to write the anthem of the Republic. Economical difficulties forced him to leave Italy and go to Belém do Par6, where he directed the Musical Conservatory. He died there on September 16, 1896.

Back: Statue of Gomes and grand piano

Front: Mário de Andrade (1893-1945), Brazilian poet and novelist

Andrade was the central figure in the avant-garde movement of São Paulo for twenty years. Trained as a musician and best known as a poet and novelist, Andrade was personally involved in virtually every discipline that was connected with São Paulo modernism, and became Brazil's national polymath.

Back: de Andrade teaching school children