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EDMUND PINK'S SKETCHES IN BRAZIL TAKEN DURING A RESIDENCE THERE, IN THE YEARS 1821, 22, 23, 24, & 25
Pink's Sketches in Brazil (lots 39-43) present a remarkable picture of Brazil in the historic and turbulent years which led to its independence, proclaimed in 1822 in Sao Paulo and fully recognised in the treaty signed by the Portuguese King, Dom Joao VI in August 1825.
Pink's presence in Brazil, as a member of the English trading company G.T. Standfast & Co. in Rio de Janeiro, is itself evidence of the changes sweeping the country, it's ports having only been opened to foreign trade by the exiled Prince Regent Don João VI on his arrival from Portugal in 1808. Pink's Journal (included in lot 39) joins an absorbing commentary to the Sao Paulo watercolours. His first port of call on his excursion to the province of Sao Paulo from Rio is Santos:
'It being the best situated port in this province commands a very considerable trade, in both Exports and Imports - its export trade till within a few years past had been confined to the Capital of Brazil - and the northern and southern provinces - and Oporto - the latter place in return for Wines and other Commodities brought from there, but now great quantities of sugar are shipped to various parts of the Continent of Europe direct'. At Sao Paulo he describes the city in all its aspects, geographical, social and political, as they confronted him in 1823: 'The City of St Paulo is of a considerable size, very irregularly built - the population may at the present time amount to about twenty-thousand including slaves. It is well situated - on gentle elevated land at the conflux of two small rivers - washing it on the Eastern and Western sides. The River Tieté passes it about 1/2 league to the north - it lays just without the tropic of Capricorn.
The houses are generally built of Taipa - It has a Caza de Mizericordia - Several Hospitals - Convents - Churches - with a Cathedral (...) a Prison - Bank - Theatre (...) together with a House for the Assaying of Gold which is now but little in request - as there are no mines worked in the Neighbourhood although formerly considerable as the first Gold mine worked in Brazil is situated but a few leagues from the City - (...) The houses of the rich people are well painted and window glazed - but to those of the poorer description, those luxuries have not yet been bestowed upon - the lattice window being in general request (...) the inhabitants of this City had been always held out to us - as the most friendly - and hospitable towards one another - and particularly so to strangers - but this was at a time they were strangers to political dissentions - passing away their lives quietly under the old Portugese Government. But the difference was great a few years had made. The Old Government was no sooner unhinged by the Constitution proved in Portugal than the Minds of the People here sympathized equally in the Event with their Brethren there and the effect on the uneducated multitude was dangerous. - party spirit arose and friendships of longstanding were severed because a different sentiment in politics prevailed amongst them.
This was particularly noticed to be the case during our stay at St Pauls - and it was difficult to find out which party had the most sway, as their ideas never appeared in print - there was no printing office in the city (...) the greatest animosity seemed to rage against the Portugese - great numbers of whom - the most reputable and honest inhabitants of the City - had been banished to the neighbouring towns in the Province (...) because a suspicion was raised in the minds of the then ministers - the Andrades, that these people were unfavorable to the existing state of things - the warfare with Portugal was not in its zenith.'
He moves on from Sao Paulo to explore the sugar districts, visiting Campinas, Moje Mirim, Itu, Porto Feliz, the factories of St. João d'Ipanema ('this place the Birmingham of Brazil') and Soracaba: 'The aspect of the Country in the Sugar districts beautiful in the extreme - those parts not yet cultivated consisting of virgin woods of the most luxuriant beauty - with trees rising to a majestic grandeur (...) woods of the finest quality and beauty abound in the province - but large timber in consequence of the present state of the Roads can not [be] transported to the Sea Coast. In the neighbourhood of the Fabric of Soracaba Dr Engler discovered 130 different specimens of wood - We found in St Pauls on our return the greatest anxiety portrayed on the part of the Inhabitants to news from the Capital, reports of various kinds afloat as to politics.'
Alongside Pink's Journal, the watercolours, the political pamphlets and the artist's copy of the official programme of the ceremonial of the consecration and coronation of Don Pedro I provide an extraordinarily complete picture of the country in dramatic transition from colony to independent nationhood.
BRAZIL TO 1825
Discovered in 1499 by the Spaniard Vincent Yañez Pinçon, a companion of Columbus, the country was declared an apanage of Portugal by the Portugese Commander Pedro Alvarez Cabral in 1500. Organized Government was first introduced by the Portugese King João III, dividing the territory into hereditary captaincies, each stretching along 50 leagues of the coast. Sugar cane and cattle were introduced from Madeira and the captaincies stretching from the mouth of La Plata to the mouth of the Amazon became an important source of agricultural produce for their mother country. A seat of government was established in 1549 at Bahia (San Salvador). Jesuit missionaries established a college, Sao Paulo, on the unreclaimed plains of Piratininga, and by 1567 the Portugese succeeded in establishing a settlement at Rio. Under the Spanish crown from 1578 until 1640 and neglected during this period as relatively inferior amongst the Spanish possessions, the territory was plundered by the British and conquered, temporarily, by the Dutch - the Dutch East India Company taking Bahia briefly in 1624 and Olinda in 1630, the latter the seat of Dutch supremacy for four years under Prince Maurits of Nassau. The 1640 revolution in Portugal which placed the house of Bragança on the throne eventually ousted the Dutch influence along the northern coast and quelled the impetus towards independence already emanating from the region of Sao Paulo to the south.
The next major change in Brazil's status came with Napoleon's invasion of her mother country in 1807. The Prince Regent (later Don João VI), unable to resist, fled to Brazil, arriving in Bahia in January 1808 and eventually securing asylum and his seat of Government in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil thereby became the only colony which became the seat of the Government of its own mother country. Don Joao immediately emancipated the country, opening its ports to foreign trade and permitting the export of most Brazilian produce under any flag. In 1816 the Prince Regent became King under the title Don Joao VI. Resentment and republicanism soon spread amongst the Brazilians in the face of a troubled government which was run by and in the service of the exiled Portugese. Following the revolution and establishment of representative government in Portugal in 1820, the King in Brazil was obliged to acede to a new constitution. The liberal Prince and heir to the throne, Don Pedro forced the issue, proclaiming the independence of Brazil in Sao Paulo on 7 September 1822 (see lot 41) and was proclaimed constitutional emperor in Rio on 12 October. Before the end of 1823 the Portugese forces which had resisted the new constitution and independence from Portugal had finally been driven off. In 1825 the emperor swore to a new constitution and negotiations in London between Portugal and Brazil concluded in a treaty which acknowledged
Brazil as an independent empire, the Portugese King (now returned to Portugal) assuming the title of Emperor of Brazil and immediately abdicating in favour of his son. The authority of Don Pedro I and Brazil's independence were now undisputed.
Edmund Pink (active 1820s)
The City and Province of Sao Paolo, Brazil -
a folio of thirty-two watercolours from the artist's Sketches in Brazil taken during the Residence there, in the Years 1821, 22, 23, 24 & 25 including:
Sketch of Land - Entrance to Santos (View of the Rio So Vicente)
View of the town of Santos taken from the opposite side of the River dos Santos - June 4, 1823
Fort of Itapima from the Ponta de Camaroens, end of Rua Nova, Santos, 2 June 1833(sic)
View of St Pauls from the Rio Road
Sketch of St Pauls taken from the Rio Road, Aug 16, 1823
Sketch of the City of St Pauls taken from near the spot where the Gallows is erected to the left of the Road from Santos as you enter the City, 1823
Sketch of the City of St Pauls taken on the rising Ground to the right of the Road to Itu
Sketch of the City of St Pauls, October 1823
Cathedral Square, St Pauls, 1823
Sketch in the City - O Palacio de Sola
Sketch of the House once occupied by WH May Esq near the City
Sketch of the Town of Campinas or So Carlos, 9 July 1823
Sketch of the Town of Moji Mirim taken little to the left of the High road leading to Goyaz, 2 July 1823
Sketch of the Town of Itu, 12 July 1823
Sketch of Waterfall near Itu, 13 July 1823
Sketch of the Fabric of St Jeao de Ypanema, 21 July 1823
and eight other sketches, and a key to the drawings together with Edmund Pink's Journal of the Excursion through the Provinces of Rio de Janeiro and St Pauls, Brazil, South America in 1823
