Candido Portinari

Candido Portinari was born into a large family of Italian immigrants and grew up on a coffee plantation where his family worked. These origins left their mark on him: he was the painter of popular Brazil and became a portraitist of the ordinary Afro-Brazilian population, the immigrants and the mestizos. At that time, the term mestizo was used to refer to all people of multi-ethnic origin without prejudice. It was only later that the term acquired discriminatory and pejorative connotations, and its use is now avoided.

Portinari painted this Coffee Plantation Worker in 1934, following a largely academic tradition. A Black man, dressed simply, stands in a field holding a hoe. His forearms, hands and feet are oversized. They symbolise his hard physical labour. The man appears to be resting for a moment, looking to the left into the distance. Below him is the ploughed ground, the stump of a felled tree, and beyond, a vast landscape of hills and sprawling plantations. A steam train is crossing the landscape.

In the 1930s, coffee was still Brazil’s main export. The train in Portinari’s painting is not only a symbol of modern technology and mobility, but also of the transport of coffee beans to the country’s ports. Slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888. However, former slaves and immigrants continued to work on the plantations for a long time. The coffee worker in Portinari’s work seems to be reflecting on this role.

On the role of artists in society, Portinari once said:

“Our artists must come out of their ivory towers and demonstrate a strong social responsibility, putting themselves at the service of the education of the Brazilian people.”