Lines and Colors art blog

Eye Candy for Today: Almeida Júnior’s Saudade

Saudade (Longing), Jose Ferraz de Almeida Junior
Saudade (Longing), José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior

Link is to a zoomable version on the Google Art Project; there is a very high resolution downloadable file (138MB) on Wikimedia Commons; the original is in the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (no good images).

The subject of a young woman reading a letter, with either overt or implied emotional meaning, was popular in the 17th century and remained so through the 19th.

Here, 19th century Brazilian painter Almeida Júnior gives us the motif in its essentials, with a simple strong composition, and strong emotions in the woman’s face, despite the mouth being covered.

Saudade, Google Art Project

Comments

3 responses to “Eye Candy for Today: Almeida Júnior’s Saudade

  1. I appreciate this awesome post of lines and colors ever so much, that I even mentioned it on a particular weblog, where I was able to link the word the readers know well “Sedih” (pron. Sideeh) to the origines of Saudade, although I need more proof.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudade
    http://www.proz.com/translation-articles/articles/1399/1/Aesthetics-of-Saudade

    1. Thanks, Ælle.

  2. Ælle: ….I was able to link the word the readers know well “Sedih” (pron. Sideeh) to the origines of Saudade….

    Thanks for the links, they made me learn about the word Saudade. On the matter of “the word the readers know well “Sedih”” – I became thoroughly puzzled.