Frequently described as “the painter of mulatas”— women of mixed black and white ancestry —, Emiliano Di Cavalcanti dedicated much of his career to women’s portraits. The artist helped to create an imaginary of black women in Brazilian painting, depicting them in specific ways: with well-defined breasts, low-cut blouses and seductive gazes, as in Mulata (circa 1947). In this painting, we see the subject in a three-quarter pose and note the gradient of brown tones Di Cavalcanti utilizes to depict her body, which is covered by a richly striped blouse over green tones. Despite helping to expand representations of women’s faces and bodies, especially those of black women, Di Cavalcanti’s work also ended up portraying them as passive and sexualized subjects. Moreover, a majority of these portraits are generically titled Mulata, a word originating from “mule,” a hybrid animal which is the offspring of a donkey and a mare, often used for carrying heavy cargo. In Portuguese, the term is more commonly used as a feminine gendered noun, “mulata” than in the masculine form, “mulato.” Thus, both the portrayal of these subjects and the language employed in titling such works participate in the construction of an imaginary for black women in modern Brazilian society: women known as mulatas were white-washed, set apart from dark-skinned black women; and both circumscribed to an inferior status by being reduced to their sexual attributes. In addition to its title, Mulata, this work was also known as Mulher em interior [Woman in Interior].
— Guilherme Giufrida, assistant curator, MASP, 2018
