Arcadópolis
Votorantim Waterfall
What you see
The waterfall comes down the center of the canvas in several drops between dark rocks and ends in a wide pool that fills the whole lower part. On either side, dense forest forms two green walls dotted with red and orange flowers. Between them, in the distance, a valley of misty bluish hills opens beneath a sky of white clouds.
The falling water is almost pure white paint, thick and laid on in dabs, while the pool turns a golden brown with glints of light. Seek out the big rocks in the lower right corner, the dry yellowish grass on the left bank, and the blue haze rising behind the falls.
About José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior
José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior was born in 1850 in Itu, in inland São Paulo, and studied at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro and then, with a scholarship from Emperor Pedro II, at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, from 1876 to 1882. Back in Brazil he devoted himself more and more to the “caipira”, the country people of São Paulo, whom he painted in simple scenes of work and rest under the strong inland light. His “Caipira Cutting Tobacco” had so many imitators that Monteiro Lobato joked that future historians would think Brazilians of the time did nothing but cut tobacco. He died in Piracicaba in 1899.
More by José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior
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