Artistas negros do século XIX e os gêneros de pintura: paisagem, natureza morta e retrato

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the presence and recurrence of the so-called lesser genres in the work of three Black artists trained at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts during the second half of the 19th century: Antonio Firmino Monteiro (1855–1888), Estevão Roberto Silva (1845–1891), and Antonio Rafael Pinto Bandeira (1863–1896). The research analyzes how these artists operated within the possibilities offered by the academic and artistic structures of the time, and how their chosen genres and artworks reflect formal and thematic decisions shaped by the limits imposed on their circulation within the art world. In Monteiro’s case, the focus is on his engagement with history painting as a means of social ascension—an effort that, although significant, was largely overlooked and rendered invisible by art historiography. For Silva, the emphasis on still life is examined both as a field of aesthetic specialization and as a space for commercial and economic opportunities. In Bandeira’s work, portraiture is approached as a means of constructing subjectivity and racial identity, with particular attention to how his genre and portrait paintings contrast with the predominant representations of Black subjects produced by white artists of the same period. By bringing together these three distinct trajectories, the dissertation seeks to contribute to a broader reflection on the dynamics of training, strategy, recognition, and permanence of these artists in the history of Brazilian art.