October
Ham's Redemption
Eugenics and the Whitening Ideology in 19th Century Brazil
Analyzing the code
The painting depicts a family sitting outside of a simple house. The four characters occupy the picture evenly. From left to right: An older black woman with dark skin is looking at the sky, her body facing right, with both of her hands held in the air. She is standing on the ground, behind a palm tree and a yellow wall outside the house. Her clothes are simple: a dark green shirt and pink skirt. Beside her, a younger black woman sits on a chair. This woman has a lighter skin tone than the previous, and she holds a baby on her lap and looks at it affectionately, while her left hand is pointing to the older woman on her right. She wears simple clothes as well, a white shirt, pink skirt, and a blue scarf.
The baby on her lap is white, and he also faces the older woman. He wears a white dress and is holding an orange in his right hand. His other hand is lifted in the air in the direction of the older woman.
The last character in the painting is a man, who sits on the right corner. He is sitting on the doorstep of the house, his legs crossed and turned to the right. His hands rest on his knees as he watches the baby with an adored expression and a smile. His skin is also white, and the man wears a white shirt and gray pants. Behind him, there are white clothes hanging from a cord inside the house.
The painting was made after Modesto Brocos left Spain to live in South America in 1870. At the time, the Impressionist movement was extremely popular in Europe, while in Brazil it was a few years before the Modernist movement (The Art Week of 1922) would happen. Previously, Brazilian Art had been tied closely to Religion with the Baroque movement (1601–1768). The country's exuberant nature and undeniable curiosity for the unknown let to several European artists to travel to Brazil.
The piece reflects the Realism movement that was starting to take place in the country. The composition of the piece creates a circular flow as the characters of the scene are presented. This is helped by the hands and positions of these characters, since the viewer's eyes are invited to go back and forth to them, creating a strong, coherent, and interesting dynamic. The painter is meticulous with details, making an almost photographic scene. Light and shadow are used with intention to highlight the man's white skin (by placing him over a dark background) and the woman's dark skin (by doing the opposite). Brocos uses these elements to convey his idea of Racialism.
Historical Context
After the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888, there was a new dilemma in the minds of the white population: what to do with the now free ex-slave black population. In Europe, the topic of Racial Eugenics was resurging, the English scientist Francis Galton (1822 - 1911) being one of the main voices of the theory. According to Galton, Eugenics was "The study of the agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations" (Galton 335). This ideal became popular in Brazil in the 1890's, along with a wish to make Brazil a better country by "whitening" the black population through generations by miscegenation. The painting ended up receiving a gold medal from the Salão Nacional de Belas Artes in 1895 and was praised by the elites in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
Interpretating the Code
At first sight, it is not clear the message Brocos was trying to convey, and without historical context of Brazil's political and societal situation, and knowledge of what were the painters' ideals, the theory the painter tried to portrait could be missed. Modesto Brocos believed in the thesis that with three generations, Brazil could be "restored".
The painting's name, "Ham's Redemption", refers to the Biblical myth of "Noah's Ark" (KJV Bible, Gen. 6-7). In the story, Noah was found drunk and naked by his son Ham. Ham invited his brothers to see their dad in his state, and because of that Noah cursed Canaan, Ham's son, saying that he (and his descendants) would forever be a servant to his brothers. Ham's biblical name had the meaning in Hebrew of "dark" or "black". This, at the time, was used to justify slavery by the reason that black skinned people from Africa were also cursed and should serve white people.
By naming the painting "Ham's Redemption", the artist meant that with his thesis of whitening the Brazilian population, black people could finally "redeem" themselves to God. Although some of Brocos arguments stepped into Scientific Racism and Social Darwinism, this painting shows a strong connection with Religion.
This religious affinity can be seen not only because of the paintings' name, but also with the black woman, who points her hands to the sky (see Fig.2) as if she is relieved the "curse" is finally broken. She represents the past and delay, and the other generations are the future and progress. Her feet are touching the soil, which represents the "primitive". The white man, on the other hand, rests his feet in stone (see Fig 4), a symbol of improvement, marked by the Industrial Revolution which was also beginning to happen at the time. The white man wears a white shirt, shared by the young woman and the child. This could also represent his whiteness, that both the young woman and child share (see Fig. 3). The older black woman also wears a pink skirt, same as the young woman, which could mean that the woman in the middle shares both black traits (pink skirt) and white ones (white shirt). She is sitting in between soil and stone, another symbol that she is half-way through the step of "becoming white". The colors represented were not chosen by mistake either: The green of the palm tree, blue of the scarf and yellow of the wall refer to the Brazilian flag (see in Fig. 5). All these details reinforce Brocos' thesis of Racial Whitening.
Another European artist that came to Brazil in that period was the German painter John Moritz Rugendas, who came to Rio de Janeiro in 1822. His book "Voyage Pittoresque dans le Brésil" had several illustrations showing Brazil's nature, colonial activities, and slavery. Although important for documentation, his book had what is called "Tropical Romanticism".
As Ana Lucia Araujo describes in her book "Brazil through French Eyes", Tropical Romanticism is "a vision of the country with an emphasis on the exotic" (Araujo, np). Similar to the Orientalism period that took place in Europe during late 18th century, several painters came to Brazil to study the unfamiliar, and because of their own fantasies of what the "unknown" must look like, their works were surrounded by a romantic view of their subjects. Most of these scenarios were not realistic at all. Araujo argues that "their representations of artifacts, clothing, and other elements of material culture were based not on direct observation but rather on information obtained from the collections of the Royal Museum of Natural History and from European travelogues." (Araujo, 142).
Rugenda's work "Castigo Público" (see Fig. 6) showed a scene of a slave getting beaten publicly. The romanticism behind this and other Illustrations by the artist are clear once noted the care for detail, color and composition in a scene that portrays a rather painful and horrible act. Returning to Modesto Brocos' work, it is possible to observe a similarity in the way both European artists have painted a vision of Brazil not as the country's true reality, but what they wanted it to be. Brocos' thesis on his wishes for Brazil's future were also a product of his Romanticism in transforming the country into what he wished was Europe.
In conclusion, Brocos painting reflected the painter's ideals of Racialism and Racial Whitening, inspired by European theories of Eugenics. The artist's thesis showed a romantic vision of what he wanted Brazil to look like, based on his and other white elite members idea of what a perfect Brazilian society should be.
Sources
Araujo, Ana Lucia. Brazil Through French Eyes: A Nineteenth-Century Artist in the Tropics. University of New Mexico Press, 2015.
“Bandeira Do Brasil: Significado Da Cores, Estrelas, História, Ordem E Progresso.” Significados, 14 July 2022, www.significados.com.br/bandeira-do-brasil.
Cultural, Instituto Itaú. “A Redenção De Cam.” Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural, enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/obra3281/a-redencao-de-cam. Accessed 20 Oct. 2022.
“Castigo Público.” Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural, enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/obra5762/castigo-publico. Accessed 20 Oct. 2022.
Galton, Francis. Memories of My Life, by Francis Galton ...: With Eight Illustrations. Methuen and Company, 1909.
“Harvard Library - Scientific Racism.” Harvard Library, library.harvard.edu/confronting-anti-black-racism/scientific-racism. Accessed 20 Oct. 2022.
Lotierzo, Tatiana. Contornos Do (in)Visível. Edusp, 2022.
“Modesto Brocos.” USEUM, useum.org/artist/Modesto-Brocos. Accessed 20 Oct. 2022.
Publishers, Christian Art. KJV Holy Bible, Standard Size Faux Leather Red Letter Edition - Thumb Index and Ribbon Marker, King James Version, Purple. Faux Leather Standard Size, Purple, Christian Art Publishers, 2019.
Roncolato, Murilo. “A Tela ‘a Redenção De Cam’ E a Tese Do Branqueamento No Brasil.” Edusp, 1 Oct. 2019, homologa.edusp.usp.br/mais/a-tela-a-redencao-de-cam-e-a-tese-do-branqueamento-no-brasil.
Voyage Pittoresque Dans Le Brésil (Histoire) (French Edition). HACHETTE LIVRE-BNF, 2022
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