Ernesto de Fiori began his artistic education in Rome. In the 1910s, while working as a journalist in Germany, he was conscripted into the German army to fight in World War I. During this period, he created figurative sculptures, works that clearly show the hand of their maker, revealed in their rough modeling. Fleeing Nazism, in 1936 De Fiori migrated to Brazil, where he began to systematically dedicate himself to painting local landscapes, urban themes, and female figures, such as Duas amigas [Two Friends] (1943), belonging to MASP’s collection, which includes around thirty of his works. The misshapen silhouettes and faces, represented through energetic strokes, reveal the expressionist influences from his time in Germany. De Fiori’s paintings pay particular attention to volume, a trait possibly linked to his experience with sculpture. Figura de mulher [Figure of a Woman] (undated) [img. 69] portrays a young woman with praying or supplicating hands. It employs thick, loose and swift strokes, building the volume of the figure’s body and clothing. The background consists of ocher, blue, green and yellow tones painted vertically, creating gradations in some areas of the canvas. During his time in Brazil, De Fiori painted a series of portraits of wealthy immigrants in São Paulo, mainly Austrians and Germans escaping the war. He also portrayed sex workers and other characters of São Paulo’s nightlife. In Figura de mulher, we do not know the identity of this young woman, elegantly dressed in blue and red hues, with her glassy eyes and scarfed hair.

— Guilherme Giufrida, assistant curator, MASP, 2018