The uses and functions of images: the Brazilian watercolors of Paul Harro-Harring

• Grant number: 10/00678-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2010
• End date: December 31, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Valéria Alves Esteves Lima
• Grantee: Rafael Gonzaga de Macedo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas. Universidade Metodista de Piracicaba (UNIMEP). Instituto Educacional Piracicabano. Piracicaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Paul Harro-Harring (1798-1870), Danish painter and journalist, came to Brazil with the task of investigating the living conditions of slaves in the country, linked to the English abolitionist newspaper The African Colonizer . He arrives in the country in the year 1840, staying for only three months, the period in which performs a series of 24 watercolors that were to be incorporated as part of the known album Tropical sketches from Brazil. This project aims to develop a historical and iconographic analysis of Paul Harro-Harring's Brazilian watercolors, notably those that address the issue of slavery in Brazil, at the end of the first half of the 19th century. Considering the coming conditions, his personal and professional career marked by strong political engagement, and the procedures between Brazil and England regarding slavery special issue, it will be focused as an especial purpose the notion of representation, applied to Brazilian iconographic documentation performed by Harro-Harring.