Modesto Brocos claims that the concept of national art is not limited to paintings produced in one particular country, but is a term that applies to art that expresses its own period and historical reality. In this article, the Spanish artist stresses that national history and cultural traditions play an extremely important role in the development of its own unique artistic voice. As a new country that has not yet formed its own myths, Brazil—and Brazilian artists—must follow in the steps of a precursor, be it “the rather poor art” of the vessels produced on the Island of Marajó (at the mouth of the Amazon river), or the work of the painter Almeida Júnior, who “painted the peasants in his native São Paulo in his own very personal style.” Brocos adds that any attempt to develop a national art requires the “redoubled efforts” of subsequent generations.  

In this excerpt from his book Retórica dos pintores (1933), Modesto Brocos (1852–1936), the Spanish-born artist who lived in Rio de Janeiro, discusses questions concerning the aesthetics, technique, and teaching of art based on his experience as a professor at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes. In this excerpt, which was selected by Quirino Campofiorito to be included in the Bellas Artes publication, Brocos discusses “national art” within the context of painting, and the need to work at it over a long period of time. This is, of course, a handicap for Brazil, a nation that is barely more than a century old. Brocos identifies another possible “starting point” for the country’s “future national art” as the arrival of the Missão Artística Francesa (sent by the Emperor Dom Pedro I) to take charge of formal art education in Brazil.

The Spanish painter Modesto Brocos came to Brazil when he was eighteen years old, to work as an illustrator at the newspaper Mequetrefe. He introduced the woodcut technique to Brazil, and used it in his illustrations. He spent two years in Brazil, then traveled in Europe until 1890, when he returned to Brazil in the early days of the Republic to claim his citizenship. He taught a course on freestyle drawing at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (1891–1896). His work has become an essential reference on the subject of Brazil’s national identity because he painted realistic scenes of daily life, such as his 1895 painting Redenção de Can, which shows four people, each with a different skin color, in front of a modest house. Like caste paintings, his work played a pivotal role in the national conversation on ethnicity, especially in terms of the “whitening” and “miscegenation” ideas suggested by João Baptista de Lacerda. Brocos later wrote books about art teaching and art terminology, among them: A questão do ensino de Bellas Artes (1915) and the Retórica dos pintores (1933), mentioned in this document.