Images of permanence: thoughts on Charles Ribeyrolles’ and Victor Frond’s Brasil Pitoresco (Picturesque Brazil) album

Abstract

In this article, we intend to deal with the relations between painting and photography in Brazil during the 19th century. Our aim is to analyze, in detail, the album Brasil Pitoresco (Brazil Picturesque), from the French authors Charles Ribeyrolles (1812-1860) and Victor Frond (1821-1881), which was published in 1861. Brasil Pitoresco was the first travel narrative edited in Latin America with illustrations came from photography. Victor Frond was also a pioneer when he registered in his photographs the national agricultural production and the work of the afro-descendents at the farming areas of the Fluminense region, in Rio de Janeiro. After de 1880’s, the publication’s repertory of images became inspiration source, being reused by artists that dealt with the rising genre painting. They tried to portrait national daily scenes, as can be seen in some of Almeida Junior’s paintings (1850-1899).