The work portrays Brazilian statesman Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves (1848-1919), three-time president of the province of São Paulo, and later of the state (1887, 1900-1902, 1912-1916), president of the Republic from 1902 to 1906, and again in 1918 when poor health prevented him from being sworn into office. To judge by the subject’s apparent age (fiftyish), this was probably a draft for a portrait of the statesman as President, and therefore was likely painted between 1902 and 1906.
— Unknown authorship, 1998
