Mentioned By
EMPTY LABEL
Title
Festival of Saint John
Description
Composition unidentified tones. Texture unidentified. It depicts men, women and children in various activities with hill in the background. In the foreground on the left woman sitting front, slightly turned to the left, with his on the left arm on the neck and on the right behind one of the three girls lowered to his on the right; she has suggested facial features and hair tied in a bun. The nearest two girls woman are profile to the right and the girl on the left most faces. The three have defined facial features and the girl on the left most wears fringe covering her forehead. Following on the right next to the woman on the floor chest. Next to the trunk, little boy standing back to back, using brimmed hat, sleeved shirt and long pants; holding in his on the right hand the woman's skirt on your on the right. A woman is standing back to back, wears turban on his head, neck shirt with "U", appearing combination lace underneath and skirt. on the far right, short wall or crate, and a girl sitting almost in profile to the left and behind, girl standing in front, holding baby in her arms, the on the right arm. It has defined facial features, short hair with straight cut and wear ribbon to the head. In the background to the left, back, woman, long hair tied at the time of his neck, holding with both hands, a child who is sitting opposite, in other species higher than the first crate. In the center, behind the chest, woman standing, with the body tilted to the right stirring in a mortar. Pylon ago, another woman from the front, seen from the bust up, three quarters turned to the left, with can d'rectangular water on his head and wearing turban. Further to the left, boy back, climbing tree trunk. In the third plane to the left, with two masts flag at the end disposed diagonally from the right to on the left and front to back. Following to the right, a man standing; two women facing with can of water on the head; a man in front, carrying bundle of wood; the floor frame to fire; another tree trunk; a woman with backpack on the head; and on the far right, three women with cloths in their hands open as if they extend them. All over the hill to the bottom, several scattered figures, trees, houses and staircase almost in the center. on the far right, a big house, with tufts of plants in front and palm trees behind. In the background, sky range behind the hills
Location Created
Author
Candido PortinariPerson
Historical Info
In a 1937 interview with the São Paulo daily ""Diário de S. Paulo,"" Portinari made the following comment: ""... ‘São João’, which I’ve been working on for about a year and which I consider one of the most important works I’ve done so far..."" [PR 377]. In 1943, Graciliano Ramos wrote an article for ""O Jornal"" describing his experience in 1937 sitting for his portrait [FCO 3061] in Portinari’s atelier. In the article, Graciliano spoke at length about ""Festa de São João:"" ""... From the chair where I sat motionless I could turn my eyes just a little and see a slice of ‘São João,’ which occupied a wall in the small room. Someone gave me photographs of the painting from the newspaper a year earlier. It was finished then, but the composition continued to evolve: colorful, then black and white, then colorful again, and he had experimented with a number of transformations. He corrected the little boy climbing the palm tree, a water can changed size, the kinky hair of the eye-catching mulatto woman, carefully combed and straightened, completely different from her original hair. Amidst all this devastation and rebirth, what concerned me was the little mestizo angels grouped together at the right, an admirable triad in which was distilled, after excessive retouching, the good and pure sentiment of the shantytown. Among the three, I was most drawn to the corpulent, dark-skinned one, lively and illuminated by an enchanting smile.– " O! Portinari, are you going to keep messing with this one?’ ‘No, I think it’s done.’ I sighed with relief and gratitude. But the next time I visited the painter, I found my friend sad and undone: a shadow cast over the brilliant smile. That radiance had been out of harmony with the group."
Themes
Related Document26
Art Form
PaintingArtFormType
Art Medium
oilArtMediumType
Artwork Surface
canvasArtworkSurfaceType
Collection
Ateliê do artistaCollection
Height
172
Width
195
Annotation
Unsigned and undated
