Alfredo Andersen (1860-1935): portraits and landscapes of a Norwegian painter

• Grant number: 13/03769-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants - Publications - Books published in Brazil
• Start date: June 01, 2013
• End date: May 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Leopoldo Garcia Pinto Waizbort
• Grantee: Leopoldo Garcia Pinto Waizbort
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This book investigates the trajectory and the artistic production of the Norwegian painter settled in the state of Paraná, Alfredo Andersen (1860-1935) through a historical-sociological perspective. Born in Kristiansand, Norway, the artist had his artistic training held in private studios and at the Academy of Fine Arts of Copenhagen, Denmark, then peripheral when it comes to Europe. The analysis of his Norwegian phase search to comprehend the construction of his schema, and also his involvement with the nationalistic movement, which brought the artist, on the one hand, a vision of the national folk and on the other, a way of seeing landscape as an element of identity. The book also seeks to review his migration to Brazil and his settling in Paranaguá, by comparing the conditions and alternatives that were presented to him in Europe and the opportunities that he might have seen in Brazil. His plastic services quickly found a market, and by the importance of his work he is considered the father of Paraná's painting, a myth that this study sought to deconstruct through a sociology of his biographies, that brought up the main interests behind that canonization. Also, this study analyzed the main genres painted by Andersen inside the context of their production, seeking to understand their social meanings, and each one brought elements of the intricate puzzle that characterized his trajectory, full of tensions and ambiguities, specially concerning his relation with the local elites. By analyzing portraiture, it was possible to understand the role that his art had to the rising bourgeoisie, that sought distinction, and had a conservative taste. Meanwhile, his landscapes, which led to him being considered by the historiography as a regionalist, has proved a fertile ground to see his ambivalent relationship with paranismo, and the construction of an alternative solution within his marines. With his social experience marked by the condition of beeing a foreigner and by the marriage with a native, the genre scenes were rich documents to the apprehension of his position in the local field and are perhaps the richest of the painter. (AU)