In Vista de um mato virgem que se está reduzindo a carvão (View of a Native Forest Being Reduced to Coal), Taunay collapsed several stages of the timbering process into a single composition, capturing the industry as a major source of revenue for Brazil throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century. Though famous for paintings that gave shape and form to Brazilian national identity, Taunay was aware of the ecological damage being wrought by the wholesale logging of Brazil’s rich forests. Here, Taunay depicted the natural setting transformed by human action: the right side of the canvas features Rio de Janeiro’s Tijuca Forest in its unspoiled state, while the left shows where vegetation has been cut, fired, and reduced to charcoal. By showing land being depleted of its resources, Taunay’s painting combines scientific attention to detail with the techniques of European-styled landscape composition.