The Bavarian artist Georg Grimm was one of numerous foreign artists who came to Brazil and made names for themselves as landscape painters and teachers. A transformational instructor at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, Grimm advocated for plein air painting, arguing that direct observation of nature was the purest form of inspiration. Vista da Ponta de Icaraí displays many of the characteristics of this approach, depicting an everyday gathering of picnickers at a popular beach spot in Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay. The contemporary dress of the figures contrasts sharply with the ancient browns and grays of the cliff sides, reminding viewers of the dichotomy between human and geologic time.