MASP

Edmund Pink

Esboço da cidade de Mogi-Mirim, tomada à esquerda do caminho para Goiás (SP), 1823

  • Author:
    Edmund Pink
  • Bio:
    Sussex, Inglaterra, 1802-?
  • Title:
    Esboço da cidade de Mogi-Mirim, tomada à esquerda do caminho para Goiás (SP)
  • Date:
    1823
  • Medium:
    Aquarela sobre papel
  • Dimensions:
    60 x 48 cm
  • Credit line:
    Comodato MASP B3 – BRASIL, BOLSA, BALCÃO, em homenagem aos ex-conselheiros da BM&F e BOVESPA
  • Object type:
    Desenho
  • Inventory number:
    C.01247
  • Photography credits:
    MASP

TEXTS



In 1823, Edmund Pink, a British traveler and merchant, spent five months traveling throughout Brazil, and especially São Paulo state. During this time, São Paulo was leaving behind an image of isolation and destitution and celebrating its growth as it became one of Brazil’s leading commercial hubs. Over the following several decades, the state’s economy would flourish as Brazilian coffee production reached its apogee. This helps to explain why there are so few pictorial representations of the city until the mid-19th century. Pink traveled throughout São Paulo, observing the public squares and fountains of the old colonial town and the Ipiranga neighborhood. He explored the state’s centers of sugarcane production — including the Itu region and stretches of the roads to Santos, Mogi Mirim, Campinas, Rio de Janeiro and Goiás— and witnessed the factories that were beginning to crop up in the state. It’s possible that these illustrations belonged to an album of foreign locations compiled by the artist. Accompanied by a travelogue, they would be published in illustrated almanacs about the world, captivating the interests of European publishers and audiences. Those watercolors also aimed to showcase São Paulo and serve as a testimony of its economic potential, possibly providing information to companies in England, which at the time was expanding its markets throughout former colonies. Pink’s images, aside from their documentary value, also evidence the British watercolor tradition aligned with a technical gaze that specialized in architectural designs. The watercolors are somber, broad, and panoramic, but reveal a keen dedication to detail and precision. In Cathedral Square, St. Pauls (1823) Pink demonstrates one of his strongest talents: the detailing of architecture. View of St. Pauls from the Rio Road (1823) provides a glimpse of downtown São Paulo, especially its topography, which influenced the city’s early urbanization. The scope of the urbanized area and the natural framing of the city are visible in this painting. In Sketch of the City of St. Pauls taken from Near the Spot where the Gallows is Erected to the Left of the Road from Santos as You Enter the City (1823), we can observe the complex engineering required to support buildings in the city’s hilly landscape. Sketch in the City – O Palácio de Sola (circa 1823) portrays everyday life in the state capital; to the left, this composition also displays a public water fountain and the commercial activity springing around it. View of the Town of Santos taken from the Opposite Side of the River dos Santos (1823) depicts colonial mansions framed by the mountainous landscape and tropical vegetation surrounding São Paulo’s main port city. Sketch of Land – Entrance to Santos (View of the Rio São Vicente) (circa 1823) demonstrates Pink’s interest in extremely wide panoramas of views to the majestic seaside mountains. Practically all of his watercolors highlight the city as framed by its landscape. In them we also note the growing influence of capitalism over the region’s colonial landscape.

— Guilherme Giufrida, assistant curator, MASP, 2018

Source: Adriano Pedrosa, Guilherme Giufrida, Olivia Ardui (orgs.), From the brazilian exchange to the museum: MASP B3 long-term loan, 19th and 20th centuries, São Paulo: MASP, 2018.



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