When I became interested in Tarsila do Amaral's self-portraits, produced between 1921 and 1924[1], I noticed that, despite representing less than 3% of all her production in the period, they establish an enlightening segment of several aspects involving the artist, but which so far has aroused little interest in her scholars: I am referring to the series from which only Self portrait (manteau rouge) e Self portrait I are taken into account[2]. I am sure that an investigation into these works is necessary in order to connect the people that Tarsila creates for herself during those years of her insertion/reinsertion as a woman in the São Paulo social environment and, as a professional artist, in the São Paulo-Paris art circuit[3].
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To study these works, I had to structure them as a series and, for that, I used seven works called by the artist as “self-portraits” and three that, although not called as such, seemed to me to be idealized projections that Tarsila produced from yourself. Finally, I added to the series the painting in which the artist reproduced her niece Maria Souza Lima – The Spaniard (Paquita)[4] – in which the “self-presence” in the portrait of his relative seemed remarkable to me.
What initially caught my attention in the series was how Tarsila, in that short period, used so many stylistic devices to portray herself. There are two groups of works in this series: in the first, a certain chromatic boldness is perceived, based on what seems to have been the artist's objective at the time: to experience the break of naturalist painting, using (not with great success) certain styles supposedly arising from impressionism and some of its immediate consequences.
Within this subgroup would be Self portrait with red scarf, Self-portrait in orange dress e Self portrait with red flower[5]. The three show the artist from a point of view slightly below the figure's eye level, a strategy that, visible in the Western pictorial tradition, was disseminated through photographic portraits. Another possible interaction between photography and painting: in all three, alongside the supposed freedom in the treatment of colors, the descriptive dimension that photography brings to the image prevails. Overly explicit and “faithful”, these self-portraits document Tarsila's difficulties in the field of portraiture, at the initial moment of her immersion in modern painting.
These three self-portraits, however, were not intended to be daring only through the strident combination of colors or the instrumental use of the photographic image. They also “dare” in the use of, let's say, unorthodox props with which the artist showed herself in them. The red scarf on the head of the figure portrayed in the first self-portrait, in addition to establishing a sharp contrast with the greenish blue of the blouse – effectively the great formal “boldness” of the work –, refers the figure portrayed there to a romanticism of a popular, distant bias. of Tarsila's situation as a member of one of the most traditional families in São Paulo. Tarsila, a country woman, a kind of gypsy, perhaps?
In the second painting, the orange dress in which she portrays herself is practically invisible due to the pink shawl that appears stuck under the figure's bust. In fact, it is not possible to detect with certainty which costume was used by the artist there, but, whatever the outfit, the V-neckline frames a body that hides, at the same time that it exposes itself to the viewer's eyes (presumably a man). A cleavage as coquettish as the smiling and somewhat mischievous expression the figure wears. It is also worth asking: where is the representation of the lady from São Paulo?
If in the two works from 1921 it is notable how the artist shows herself outside the standards expected for a woman of her social class, in the one from 1922, however, Tarsila will radicalize a little more, representing herself dressed in fact as a “Spanish woman”.[6]. If in previous works the Spanish woman who seemed to inhabit the artist’s desire for projection was only intuited – by the scarf, by the shawls, by the smile and by the hair barely contained under the fabric or the bun – in Self portrait with red flower, a pastel on paper in which the blue tones of the dress define/frame the artist's neck and face, expanding through her hair and the background, in contrast to the red flower. Another thing to note is that once again the point of view chosen for the composition of this pastel is the one below the eyes of the represented figure, which only emphasizes Tarsila's desire to portray herself as a resolute woman, out of the norm, exposing herself to an energy as indomitable as her poorly controlled hair framing her face.
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The second subgroup of the series is characterized by a gradual abandonment of that conservative painting, but which absorbed certain styles from the avant-gardes of the late 19th century, always maintaining a certain naturalistic, descriptive bent. In this second subgroup of self-portraits, on the contrary, what will be noticed above all is the emphasis on the planar character of the painting, which denotes a rapid absorption of rules that emerged after the Impressionist experience, also duly overcome (by the way) in the early 1920s. , If before, therefore, Tarsila would go through the absorption of a certain notion of “impressionist” painting, now – and in a better resolved way – the presence of another visuality will be noticed in some works, this one based on the example of Paul Gauguin and his followers .
As mentioned, technically The Spaniard (Paquita), from 1922, is a portrait of the artist's niece. But, at the limit, I think she can be presented as an idealized projection of Tarsila herself (the features of the portrayed remind the images of others of her self-portraits). In it we see a hieratic figure, conceived within a planar structure that leaves aside the descriptive dimension of the works previously commented on to emphasize a more synthetic dimension of form. That Paquita demonstrates how quickly (and well) the artist had progressed in her process of absorbing the main trends in late 19th and early 20th century art.
After all, let’s face it, having as parameters those first two paintings by “Spanish women” from 1921 and that pastel from the following year, this Paquita is a more complex work, both in technical terms and in terms of adherence to the vocabulary of modern painting, and can even be understood as a kind of bridge between the somewhat awkward images of an exuberant woman in the three self-portraits discussed here and the one that will appear in 1923 and 1924, respectively with Self portrait (manteau rouge) e Self portrait I. In this sense in The Spaniard (Paquita), the woman portrayed – with her lap and face framed by dark tones – works as a new person for the artist, still involved in the romanticism of the “Spanish woman”, but, through formal synthesis, already seeking a transcendence that no longer seems of this world.
Another important fact about the self-portraits already mentioned and The Spaniard (Paquita): if the presence of the “Spanish woman”, at the beginning, was only suggested, from the 1922 pastel and this portrait of her niece, the character appears full, configuring a type of woman that Tarsila could be interested in taking as a parameter to forge her image public.
(paquita), from 1922, no longer smiles and is no longer exposed to the male gaze, as in previous works. On the other hand, however, she continues to exploit a stereotype of a beautiful, resolute and self-possessed woman, in short, a “Spanish woman”.
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Later, I will refer back to Tarsila’s attitude in wanting to represent herself as a Spaniard, linking her own image to that stereotype that, for decades, was imposed in Europe, as the substrate of a willful woman, with a strong temperament – and a dubious reputation. , say[7].
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All the authority, mixed with the exoticism (of the clothes, the features) and the sensuality, perceived in Tarsila's works discussed so far, reappears in full body self portraitOf 1922[8]. The effective submission to the action of the brush on the canvas and the consequent planar dimension of the painting, do not hide the emphasis on the rhetoric of the “Spanish” – the beautiful and haughty woman, caught in a radical counter-plot which underlines the authority of her presence, dressed in a blue costume, partially hidden by a green shawl – typical equipment of traditional Spanish women. It is also necessary to emphasize in this painting the subordination of the photographic image – certainly the basis for the self-portrait – to the pictorial construction of the artist’s image and its surroundings. if in Self-portrait in orange dress, from the previous year, the subservience of painting to the discretion of photography made the result even more awkward, here it is already remarkable how much Tarsila is aware that in translating the photographic image into the pictorial image, a conscious process of synthesis is necessary[9].
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Reviewing these paintings brings to light at least two photographs of Tarsila in which she allows herself to be photographed as a Spaniard. The first, undated – which may have inspired or formed part of a set of photographs from which the pastel mentioned above came from – represents Tarsila in counter-plot, at the mercy of the observer's gaze, with a smile on his lips and a dreamy look towards becoming (see photo at the beginning of the text). All this self-confidence is reinforced by the wide neckline that bare her bosom, combined with the flower and the typical Spanish comb.[10].
The second photo, from 1925, presents Tarsila also dressed as a Spaniard, showing such exuberance and sensuality that she transforms all the other members of the group into simple supporting actors. I refer to the photograph taken on board the ship Cap. Pollonio, who took Tarsila and Oswald de Andrade to Europe. From the outfits of the others portrayed (with the exception of Oswald, of course) it was not a costume party and the artist's clothing had a lot of staging, a kind of performance in which she seemed to enjoy acting as an Andalusian salty[11].
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These images of a beautiful, sensual and extravagant woman – which will mark Tarsila's presence in the history of Brazilian culture – contrasted with the image of “another” Tarsila, a more restrained woman. It is known that, in everyday life, until at least mid-1922, the artist often tended to dress and behave in a discreet manner, with clothes more predictable for a woman of her social class: long sleeved dresses and when you go out, discreet hats. This sober image – which contrasts so much with the representations commented above – is documented by some photographs from the period. In 1921, on a trip to London, Tarsila is portrayed with a discreet dress, closed shoes and a hat that enhances the decorum of her attire.[12]
But a photo produced in London is also from 1921, in the boarding house where the artist was staying. In it, Tarsila, alongside two strangers, looks at the camera that also captures her from the bottom up. Her smile is framed by the hair stuck on top of her head.
Tarsila seems to have appreciated this image so much – another projection of the “Spanish woman”? –, that she does not hesitate to cut out a copy of the same to fill out her identification card as an exhibitor at the Salon Officiel des Artistes Français, in 1922. This option is interesting because it associates that challenging image with his ticket to the official exhibition, a kind of passport to enter the Parisian artistic environment as a professional.
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Figure (The Passport) e model portrait, both from 1922, present the figure of a woman with some features that, if not directly referring to the artist, make us remember her: the lips, the appropriate hairstyle to receive the “Spanish” attire – the flower (present in the first painting) and the comb -, and a neckline that barely hides the sensuality of the portraits' laps, already perceived in other paintings. These works, in turn, contrast with two other works by Tarsila, produced in the same period: the short hair self portrait, 1923 – a delicate drawing focused above all on the artist's keen eye, without any detailing of other parts of her body; and Figure in blue, also from 1923[13].
The last one takes us back to painting. The Spaniard (Paquita), from the previous year, due to the hieratic posture of the figure, the opulent treatment of the color – which reinforces the two-dimensional character of the support –, in addition to the fact that the image alludes to the artist herself, portrayed here discreetly, without the boldness of her “ Spanish” earlier; however, she nevertheless displays a kind of blue shawl that, with the discreet neckline of the green bodice, frames her elegant bosom.
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It is interesting to draw attention to these images of Tarsila produced in the early 1920s. They are photographs, professional and amateur, self-portraits and a few portraits in which she seems to superimpose, on the image of the portrayed, the idealization of her own image. Tarsila, a discreet lady of São Paulo society, appears crossed by idealizations of a person associated with the desire to become a woman who owns herself, who owns her body – a “Spanish”! – At the same time she sought to professionalize herself as an artist increasingly distant from traditional art.
This coincidence between body posture/way of dressing and posture as an artist concerned with updating herself quickly, makes it clear that these two instances were forged together, one giving structuring strength to the other.
As idle as it may seem to study an artist's work from her personal life, in Tarsila's case, such idleness does not exist. The desire for transformation, both in her posture as a woman (sometimes discreet, sometimes exuberant), and in her willingness to experience the various stages of aesthetic radicalism that emerged from Impressionism, is linked to her attempt to seek a new identity. But why “a new identity”?
Tarsila was created to become what was expected of every woman at the beginning of the last century, especially those of her social class: to marry and be a mother. She studied at boarding school in Europe, was well educated in various subjects; her talent was stimulated by literature, music and painting, but instead of investing in one of these talents from the beginning, Tarsila got married and became a mother.
All the intelligence, curiosity, all the drive for knowledge that already characterized her was directed towards marriage and motherhood, building a halo of protection that kept her away from her professional aspirations.
Tarsila remained in this matrimonial/maternal caste until her first husband betrayed her with her brother Oswaldo's wife.[14].
The point is not to consider the relationship between Tarsila and her first husband, but the social structure from which she was expelled when she separated. In the patriarchal society, so strong at the beginning of the century, she suddenly found herself socially declassified. If her husband's lover had also disqualified herself, becoming the "other", Tarsila became the neglected, betrayed woman, having been left to her only the role of mother tutored by her parents.[15].
In 1923, already achieving her first results as an artist, her father instructed her to take care of her brother's children and her ex-husband's mistress, taking them to Europe, along with her daughter - as evidenced by the testimony of one of his nieces to the studious Nádia Battella Gotlib: “Aunt Tarsila was wonderful. And we know each other for that: my parents divorced and grandpa told Tarsila to take care of her nephews. There were five…”[16].
With no defined social function – what could a woman do, separated from her husband, in the high society of São Paulo at the time, if not to return to the protection of her parents to, with them, take care of their children and nephews? – Tarsila will seek a social and professional place in the visual arts. Interesting, on the other hand, that, when choosing to become a painter, she chose a profession that, in Brazil, did not have recognized women artists or, at least, great prominence in the field. If in the other modalities that also came to interest her – poetry and music – it was possible to find successful women professionals, both in Brazil and abroad[17], in painting in Brazil, at that time, there was no professional woman comparable, in terms of public recognition, to certain poets and concert artists.[18].
Perhaps these facts help to understand the need for Tarsila to seek in the image of the “Spanish woman” a shield to face the challenges she would encounter when working in a professional activity that, in addition to being little respected in Brazil, was fundamentally “masculine”.
of which others people could she have resorted to imposing herself in such territory?
Opting for the use of simple and unpretentious clothes, to romantically align with the figure of the poor, but talented young artist – a vision that is also stereotyped and, in the end, a mere inversion of the talented and poor male artist –, seems not to have crossed her mind. or, at least, it did not prosper at the beginning of the 1920s. On the other hand, it also seems that, at least in those early years, it did not occur to him to radicalize the indices of his belonging to the upper class, rich and sophisticated – which he would only do in 1923. , when he decides to become the protagonist of Brazilian modern art, between São Paulo and Paris[19].
But before that, between 1921 and 1922, Tarsila, as seen, invested a lot in the hyperfeminine image of a Carmen tropical.
Probably this adaptation of the image itself to the stereotypes of the sensual woman with a dubious reputation, cannot and should not be understood only as a shield of protection created by the artist, but also as a weapon of attack and empowerment within both high society São Paulo, as well as in the fragile artistic environment of the city – both territories hostile to women in search of liberation. By choosing to become a “Spanish”, in a Carmen, Tarsila wanted to face those environments from the exacerbation of the stereotype, as if, through this exacerbation process, she sought to discredit it, starting to be seen as a woman and an artist.
But this attitude seems not to have been well received in the environment in which she lived, as it was one thing for a woman, at one time or another, to show extravagance as a way of trying to impose an opinion or attitude. It was quite another to wish to behave through procedures and actions that were openly frowned upon.
After all, would the Amarals be able to live peacefully if that important member of the family, for portraying herself as a type of disqualified woman, started to be seen as such? Wouldn't her situation as a woman separated from her husband be reason enough for embarrassment?
A fact that perhaps corroborates the negative reception of this person be the fact that the “Spanish woman”, as seen, lived in Tarsila for practically two years, between 1921 and 1922. From the following year, the painter begins to assume her differential as a very rich heiress, marking the new artistic environment in which she set foot. with the tails of Patou and Poiret's exclusive garments.
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However, still in 1922, a drawing – a sketch of a larger work than is known to have ever been produced – would appear as a hitherto unimaginable projection of the artist, conceived as a naja very particular, a mixture of the theme treated by Goya and conceived as a composition to the Marie Laurencin. I refer to spanish, a pastel on cardboard[20].
In a pretentious composition, a naked woman, reclining to the right of the composition, has part of her voluptuous body barely covered by a mantilla attached to a sieve - one of those big Spanish combs. Next to the monumental Spaniard, three women are seated: one plays an instrument while the others remain silent, perhaps listening to the music. It is impossible not to interpret the main figure of the sketch as another projection of the artist herself, aware of her beauty and how provocative it could be to assume herself as a professional artist and a woman defiantly at the mercy of the male gaze.
But Tarsila, as far as is known, never carried out the project outlined there.
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The figure of a sensual and resolute Spaniard conceived by Tarsila seems to have been nothing more than a fantasy, a “revolutionary” position before a society that did not seem willing to recognize any other role for her than that of mother and aunt. Performing the flighty but ambitious Spaniard, she believed she could move through the various moments of modern art, from impressionism to the most current strands of art. But this was an image that did not fit the assumptions established for a woman of her social class.
In mid-1923, at the moment when she actually began to envision the role she could play in Brazilian art and culture, Tarsila, as mentioned, would build another person for herself: paradoxically ascetic and refined, the new Tarsila will marry modernity and exoticism, pleasing Brazilians and French, both for her way of dressing and behaving, as well as for her paintings.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES
Books
– AMARAL, Aracy. Tarsila her work and her time🇧🇷 São Paulo: Editora Perspectiva/Edusp, 1975. Vol.1.
– AMARAL, Aracy. Tarsila do Amaral. Buenos Aires: Finambras Foundation, 1998.
– AMARAL, Tarsila do Chronicles and other writings by Tarsila do Amaral (org.: Laura Taddei Brandini. Campinas: Editora Unicamp, 2008.
– GOTLIB, Nadia Battella. Tarsila do Amaral the modernist, 2nd. São Paulo: Editora Senac, 2000.
– MICELI, Sergio. Foreign national: social and cultural history of artistic modernism in São Paulo🇧🇷 São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2003.
– POLLOCK, Griselda. Vision and difference. Feminism, femininity and art histories🇧🇷 Buenos Aires: Fiordo, 2015.
– PINSKY, Carla B./PEDRO, Maria Joana (eds.). New stories of women in Brazil.São Paulo: Context, 2020
– SARTUNI, Maria Eugenia (Coord.Ed.). Tarsila. Raisonné catalogue. São Paulo: Base 7 Cultural Projects/Pinacoteca de São Paulo, 2008. 3 vol.
Articles
– CHIARELLI, Thaddeus. “The caipirinha and the French: Tarsila do Amaral and the devouring of modernity via Fernand Léger. Access this link.
[1] – Based on the information contained in the artist's general catalogue, Tarsila do Amaral produced her self-portraits only in this period, between 1921 and 1924. : SARTUNI, Maria Eugenia (Coord.Ed.). Tarsila. Raisonné catalogue. São Paulo: Base 7 Cultural Projects/Pinacoteca de São Paulo, 2008. 3 vol.
[2] - Self portrait (Manteau rouge), 1923, Collection of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro; self-portrait I, 1924, Collection Artistic-Cultural Collection of the Government Palaces of the State of São Paulo. As far as is known, only Sergio Miceli would have been interested in commenting on practically all of the artist's self-portraits. MICELI, Sergio. Foreign national: social and cultural history of artistic modernism in São Paulo🇧🇷 São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2003.
[3] – Given the dimensions of this article, it will be divided into two parts: “The self-portraits of Tarsila I: the Spaniard” and “The self-portraits of Tarsila II: the painting achiropita".
[4] - The Spaniard (Paquita), 1922, Private collection, Brasília, DF.
[5] - Self portrait with red scarf, 1921, Private collection, Porto Alegre, RS; Self-portrait in orange dress, 1921, Collection Banco Central do Brasil, Brasília, DF (recent data: currently in lending at MASP).; Self portrait with red flower, 1922 (Collection of Visual Arts of the Institute of Brazilian Studies – USP, São Paulo, SP.
[6] – Next, it will be seen that representing oneself as a Spaniard could have several meanings, given the stereotyped view that Europe as a whole seemed to have about Spain and its women.
[7] – This false understanding of the Spanish woman as an exotic being, obstinate and of dubious reputation arises as a result of the way Spain itself was seen by many in the rest of Europe. Spain for centuries was seen as part of Africa, as a piece of the Islamic east in the vicinity of France. Prejudice towards “Spanish” would bear fruit in the field of art and culture, especially in France from the mid-19th century, entering the first decades of the following century. As a result of this prejudice and an element that helped it to expand even further, it was Carmen, novel by Prosper Mérimée, from 1845, based on the homonymous opera by Georges Bizet, which premiered in 1875.
[8] - full body self portrait, 1922. Private Collection, SP.
[9] – From the chronicles that Tarsila will begin to publish in the press from the 1930s onwards, it will be clear that she had a productive vision of photography, welcoming it as a form of autonomous artistic expression, and as a legitimate instrument to be used as a tool by the artist and for the learning of the art. In an article about the São Paulo painter Pedro Alexandrino (with whom she had studied), Tarsila reflects on the differences between naturalist painting and the photographic medium and on how the painter should know how to discern the details of the photographic image that should be transferred to painting and those that needed to be suppressed in favor of the synthetic dimension of the painting, “Pedro Alexandrino”. Diary of São Paulo, 17, November, 1936. In AMARAL, Tarsila. Chronicles and other writings by Tarsila do Amaral. Organization Laura Taddei Brandini. Campinas: Unicamp Publisher, 2008. page 163 et seq.
[10] – It is known that Tarsila spent part of her adolescence in a school in Barcelona. This experience, however, would not explain her interest in aligning her image with that stereotype of a Spanish woman, already discussed here, far, of course, from the type of woman valued by the Catholic school where she studied in that city.
[11] Francisco Inojosa would give the following statement about when he met Tarsila in São Paulo, in 1923: “[…] Tarsila do Amaral, with her wild hair of an unrepentant dreamer, with her beautiful eyes sevillians - "yeux extraordinaires, immenses, d'um noir mat, comme du velours” – and a flattered smile – a smile of unspoken approval, silent blessing to those knights errant of the ideal.” apud: AMARAL, Aracy. Op.cit. page 51. (bold is mine). As will be seen, Tarsila will like to attract attention in Paris, with resounding entrances in public places. Not properly dressed as a Spaniard, but sporting the finest designer clothes of the time.
[12] – In fact, in the passage from the 1910s to the following decade, this simplicity was noticed by the then young pianist João Souza Lima who testified: “Tarsila was very simple then, she dressed modestly with discretion […]”. AMARAL, Aracy. Tarsila. Your work and your time. vol. I Page 28. In time: Later Souza Lima would marry Maria de Lourdes, Tarsila's niece and portrayed by her in the spanish, already mentioned here.
[13] - Figure (the Passport), 1922. Col. Private, São Paulo, SP; model portrait, 1922. Whereabouts unknown; short hair self portrait, 1923. Whereabouts unknown; Figure in blue, 1923. Col. in particular, São Paulo, SP.
[14] – Information given to the author by the writer Ana Luiza Martins, author of: there goes my heart. São Paulo: Planeta, 2003. In time: only in 1925 her father managed to annul the artist's first marriage (despite the fact that she had a daughter with her first husband), freeing her to marry Oswald de Andrade. On the other hand, do not forget that, in Brazil, divorce was only made law in 1942 and divorce in 1977 (See “The kaleidoscope of family arrangements”, by Ana Silvia Scott, in PINSKY, Carla B./PEDRO, Maria Joana (orgs. .). New stories of women in Brazil.São Paulo: Context, 2020. Page 15 et seq.).
[15] – Do not forget that for the Civil Code of 1916, the status of the married woman in Brazil was equated with minors, indigenous people and the alienated. (See “The Kaleidoscope of Family Arrangements,” op. cit.).
[16] – Testimony of Maria de Lourdes do Amaral Faccio. In GOTLIB P. Tarsila do Amaral to modernist. 2nd São Paulo: Editora Senac São Paulo, 2000. p. 68.
[17] – In poetry, at the time, Brazil already had successful women professionals, capable of serving as a parameter for a talented young woman. I register here the names, among others, of Francisca Júlia and Gilka Machado, with whom Tarsila maintained cordial relations. In the field of music, Guiomar Novaes and Magdalena Tagliaferro, both internationally renowned.
[18] – In São Paulo, artists like Berthe Worms and Bety Malfatti (Anita's mother) seem to have been better known as teachers. In the carioca circuit, attached to the National School of Fine Arts, there were few female artists with any prominence. Among them, I would cite Abigail de Andrade and Georgina de Albuquerque.
[19] – As will be seen below, a problematic assumption because, after all, from that year onwards the new person created by Tarsila will oscillate between the grande dame of society and the vestal (a kind of saint) of modern Brazilian art.
[20] - spanish, 1922. Private collection, Porto Alegre Rs. Note: Despite its apparent importance, the work has not yet aroused the interest of any of the artist's scholars. In time, in 1921, the artist would have produced a drawing with the title Spanish peasant, currently with unknown whereabouts. As no image of the work was found, it was left out of this reflection (SARTUNI, Maria Eugênia (Coord.Ed.). on. cit. vol. II, pg. 13.
