Alberto da Veiga Guignard created several works portraying historical cities of Minas Gerais, both real and imagined. He eyed the colonial architecture, especially of baroque churches, and the mountains and rugged terrain that are hallmarks of a land filled with meaning for the history of Brazilian colonization and art. In Paisagem imaginária/Paisagem com nuvens e igrejas [Imaginary Landscape/ Landscape with Clouds and Churches] (undated), one can see glimpses of churches, aside from vegetation, houses and some figures. On the background, a mountain gradually becomes more brown, while closer to the foreground different tones of green compose the plants and give it volume and relief. Guignard drew the borders and details of churches on the media’s white background, which helped them stand out. Alongside the houses, the painter placed stylized persons with dark skin and a four-legged animal. These are the only denser elements of a painting whose oil was very diluted, giving the result a look closer to a watercolor and an almost unfinished quality. There is a subtle chromatic division between tones used on the mountain and the sky, which seems overcast, with black tones juxtaposed over the blue, imitating an approaching storm. Guignard paints a mystical and fairy-tale landscape as if he only chose to represent what is fundamental to him. The painting allows the viewer to capture the area’s nebulous atmosphere, where everything seems flighty, diffuse, or in suspension above the ground and lacking any firm support. Aside from those landscapes, where no clear paths or proportional distances are visible, Guignard’s dialogue with Chinese art is noticeable, especially by employing a perspective where the viewer simultaneously can understand a landscape from afar but see its architecture up close.
— Guilherme Giufrida, assistant curator, MASP, 2018
