Moema (Victor Meirelles)

Moema
ArtistVictor Meirelles Edit this on Wikidata
Year1866
Mediumoil paint, canvas
Dimensions129 cm (51 in) × 190 cm (75 in) × 3 cm (1.2 in)
LocationSão Paulo Museum of Art

Moema is an oil painting on canvas created in 1866 by Brazilian artist Victor Meirelles. It depicts the homonym character from the epic poem Caramuru (1781), by Santa Rita Durão. The work does not depict a scene from the poem, but instead Meirelles's personal interpretation of the character's fate, submerging into the water after being rejected by Caramuru.[1]

The painting was shown for the first time in 1866, in the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. It is a part of the collection of the São Paulo Museum of Art since 1947. Under Beatriz Pimenta Camargo's presidency, the museum obtained funds for the restoration of the painting, considered to be one of the most important ones in its collection.[2]

A preparatory sketch created before the actual painting shows Moema in a different position, as well as a group of natives in the background which are more prominent than the group in the finished painting's background.[1]

Preparatory sketch
  1. ^ a b Miyoshi, Alexander Gaiotto (March 2010). Moema é morta (PDF) (PhD thesis) (in Brazilian Portuguese). Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas.
  2. ^ "'Situação do Masp ainda é preocupante', diz presidente do museu". Folha de S.Paulo (in Brazilian Portuguese). February 3, 2014. Retrieved 2019-06-08.