Maria Graham (born Dundas and later called Callicot) was an English painter, illustrator, and writer who studied drawing with the founder of the Royal Academy of Arts, Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792). Her work is based on trips she took during different times in her life. In addition to two sojourns in Brazil, between 1821 and 1825, Graham traveled to India, Italy, and Chile.
Between 1821 and 1823, the artist traveled to South America aboard the ship Doris, alongside her husband, the captain of the ship, Thomas Graham, who died en route. From this trip, she published the account Journal of a Voyage to Brazil (1824), illustrated with landscapes and studies of manners. Between 1824 and 1825, she returned to the country by invitation of the Empress Dona Leopoldina (1797–1826) to be a tutor to princess Maria da Glória (1819–1853). During her stay, Graham produced a series of botanical illustrations and landscape vistas, and collected specimens for the composition of the volume Flora Brasiliensis, started by the German Karl von Martius (1794–1868). She became part of a circle of traveling artists who visited Brazil, attracted by the rich flora of the tropics.
In her last year in Brazil, she painted View of the Guanabara Bay, which belongs to the MASP collection. In this study, done on five sheets of paper mounted on a canvas, the artist presents a distant view marked by three parallel strips representing water, land, and air. The scene is composed in subdued shades that give the piece a serene atmosphere and even lighting.
— Lucia Klock Stumpf, doutora em antropologia social, USP, e mestre em culturas e identidades brasileiras, IEB‑USP, 2019
Panorama of the Guanabara Bay is made up of five sheets of paper glued onto a canvas. It is probably a sketch for a view of the Rio de Janeiro bay, designed to be mounted on a sinuous and revolving surface. In the museum’s records, the painting is erroneously dated 1822, when Graham was in Valparaiso, which disagrees with the inscription placed at the top left corner, where the date 1825 can be read. The museum also houses a portrait of Maria Graham, made by John Callcott Horsley (1817-1913), nephew of Maria’s second husband, painter August Callcott.
— Unknown authorship, 1998