Porto (Port)

Artist
Location
Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Date
1941
Materials
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
47.3 x 57.2 cm
Credit
MAC USP Collection (Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil), donated by Francisco Matarazzo Sobrinho
Locate on map View in timeline About the artist

José Pancetti’s Porto (Port) is a singular take on Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay, one of Brazil’s most painted landscapes. Rather than depicting the sandy beaches so popular with locals, Pancetti portrays the shipyard complex and the port of Niterói. More interested its workshops, cranes, and warehouses than the relaxing recreational environment so often associated with Guanabara Bay, Pancetti conveys whole subjects through an economy of brush strokes, using form and color to capture the melancholy of the damp, gray, industrial work done at this iconic site.