O Rio de Janeiro para inglês ver: o panorama de Robert Burford em Londres, 1827

Abstract

The research is about Description of a view of the city of St. Sebastian, and the Bay of Rio Janeiro, a panorama painting of Robert Burford, exhibited between 1827 and 1828 in a rotunda of his propriety, located in Leicester Square, London, the most important panoramic venue of its time. The analysis starts with the remaining engraving of the painting, an image that was sold along with a booklet to the patrons of the exhibitions. This booklet allowed people to navigate through the view and orientate themselves. A review of every publication and the critical analysis of both image and text comes next, as well as the search for commentaries and reviews printed in newspaper and periodicals of the time. If follows inquiries about the authorship of the original drawing to better understand the object. Despite the panoramas are the most important artistic medium of the Nineteenth century, it is a subject that is under studied in Brazil. For that, the thesis brings briefly its history, with information about its invention by Robert Barker in 1787. It also brings information about the typical architecture of the rotundas, the experience of the panorama spectator and the idea of the panoramas as travel substitutes. For further understanding the image that Burford built for Rio, the research has theoretical readings about the relationship between landscape and power, with focus on art and the British informal empire, the context within the carioca image belongs to. Finally it compares Rio to other compositions of Burford (Mexico City, 1823, Genova 1828, Sydney 1829, Lima 1836); with other panoramas of Rio de Janeiro exhibited in European rotundas in the Nineteenth century (Felix-Émile Taunay´ s Rio de Janeiro Panorama, exhibited in Paris in 1824 e Victor Meirelles and Henri Charles Langerock, Rio de Janeiro Panorama, exhibited in Brussels and Paris in 1888-9); or yet, with other panoramic representations of the Guanabara Bay (William Alexander, 1792, Henry Chamberlain, c. 1822 e Emeric Essex Vidal, 1834).