SERRA DE ORGAOS BY AGOSTINHO JOSE DA MOTA

AGOSTINHO JOSE DA MOTA (1824-1878)

Serra dos Orgaos: 

Pedra do Sino (2,263m- 7,425 ft)

Dedo de Deus (1,682m - 5,551ft) 

Escalavrado  (1,490m -4,890 ft) 

Brazil

 In Palácio Imperial de Petrópolis, 1855, oil on canvas, Pinacoteca si Estado de Sao Paulo

The mountains 

Pedra do Sino (Bell Rock) at 2,263 metres (7,425 ft),  Dedo de Deus (God's finger) at 1,682m (5,551ft) and  Escalavrado at 1,692 m (5,551 ft) are the highest  peaks int the Serra dos Órgãos  (Organ Range), a mountain range located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and containing the Serra dos Órgãos National Park. The peaks with steep rock walls are dramatic features that can be seen on a clear day from Rio de Janeiro, which is 50 kilometres (31 mi) distant. The Serra dos Órgãos cover san area of 20,024 hectares (49,480 acres). The range is an escarpment on the northern edge of the Guanabara Graben between the cities of Petropolis and Teresopolis. The name comes from perceived resemblance of the vertical rock formations created by erosion to the tubes of organs.

A north west fracture is exposed at the plateau's rock surfaces, which defines the direction of the ridges and valleys along the escarpment. One of these ridges contains several granite peaks including God's Finger. Formation of the rocks may have occurred around 620 million years ago. North east vertical fractures, spaced regularly about every 500 m (1,600 ft), cut the north west structures at right angles. Erosion along these fractures has isolated the massive rock blocks. The valleys have well-preserved deposits of debris that has fallen from the rock walls. In November 1981 a period of intense rain triggered hundreds of shallow landslides and flows of debris that blocked the BR-116 highway and killed about 20 people.

The painter 
Agostinho José da Mota was a painter, draftsman and Brazilian professor. Thus, in 1837, enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. He was a brilliant student and for the merits and competence demonstrated, received the prize for a trip to Europe, in 1850. Returning to Brazil, in 1856, he is one of the founders of the Society Propagating Fine Arts of Rio de Janeiro. Two years later, he  painted the portraits of the imperial couple - Dom Pedro II (1825 - 1891) and Dona Teresa Cristina (1822 - 1889).
Most of Agostinho de Motta's artistic production consists of landscapes and still lifes. His representation of the Brazilian landscape is among the best that prints the values and standards of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts (AIBA), in which he studied and later was professor, both in the formation of the idea of a national image, as well as in the formation of the image of the empire. Agostinho Mota did this for his artistic works, such as the portrait of the imperial couple and the records of the scene of the time.
The landscapes of Agostinho Motta are the most famous works of the artist. They stand out for the topographical precision, for the exact register of the dimensions of the scenarios and for the competence with which it captures the transpositions between the various colors that constitute its worked exteriors. The scenarios chosen by the artist demonstrate the marked dimension of the national identity that Agostinho Motta intended to portray in his paintings, as the Landscape of Rio de Janeiro, 1857, influenced by the canons of AIBA. 

SERRA DOS ORGAOS BY JOHANN MORITZ RUGENDAS

JOHANN MORITZ RUGENDAS (1802-1858)

Serra dos Orgaos: 

Pedra do Sino (2,263m- 7,425 ft)

Dedo de Deus (1,682m - 5,551ft) 

Escalavrado  (1,490m -4,890 ft) 

Brazil

 In Serra dos Orgaos, 1820, engraving, Centro de documentaçao D. Joaoa VI, Brazil

The mountains 

Pedra do Sino (Bell Rock) at 2,263 metres (7,425 ft),  Dedo de Deus (God's finger) at 1,682m (5,551ft) and  Escalavrado at 1,692 m (5,551 ft) are the highest  peaks int the Serra dos Órgãos  (Organ Range), a mountain range located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and containing the Serra dos Órgãos National Park. The peaks with steep rock walls are dramatic features that can be seen on a clear day from Rio de Janeiro, which is 50 kilometres (31 mi) distant. The Serra dos Órgãos cover san area of 20,024 hectares (49,480 acres). The range is an escarpment on the northern edge of the Guanabara Graben between the cities of Petropolis and Teresopolis. The name comes from perceived resemblance of the vertical rock formations created by erosion to the tubes of organs.

A north west fracture is exposed at the plateau's rock surfaces, which defines the direction of the ridges and valleys along the escarpment. One of these ridges contains several granite peaks including God's Finger. Formation of the rocks may have occurred around 620 million years ago. North east vertical fractures, spaced regularly about every 500 m (1,600 ft), cut the north west structures at right angles. Erosion along these fractures has isolated the massive rock blocks. The valleys have well-preserved deposits of debris that has fallen from the rock walls. In November 1981 a period of intense rain triggered hundreds of shallow landslides and flows of debris that blocked the BR-116 highway and killed about 20 people.

The painter 

Johann Moritz Rugendas was a German painter, famous for his works depicting landscapes and ethnographic subjects in several countries in the Americas, in the first half of the 19th century. Rugendas is considered "by far the most varied and important of the European artists to visit Latin America." whom Alexander von Humboldt influenced.  

Rugendas was born in Augsburg, then Holy Roman Empire, now Germany, into the seventh generation of a family of noted painters and engravers of Augsburg, the great grandson of Georg Philipp Rugendas, 1666–1742, a famous painter of battles.  Inspired by the artistic work of Thomas Ender (1793–1875) and the travel accounts in the tropics by German naturalists Johann Baptist von Spix (1781–1826) and Carl von Martius (1794–1868), in the course of the Austrian Brazil Expedition, Rugendas arrived in Brazil in 1821. There he was soon hired as an illustrator for Baron von Langsdorff's scientific expedition to Minas Gerais and São Paulo. Consul-general of the Russian Empire in Brazil, Langsdorff had a farm in the northern region of Rio de Janeiro, where Rugendas went to live with other members of the expedition. Rugendas visited the Serra da Mantiqueira and the historical towns of Barbacena, São João del Rei, Mariana, Ouro Preto, Caeté, Sabará and Santa Luzia. Just before the fluvial phase of the expedition started (a fateful journey to the Amazon), he became alienated from von Langsdorff, left the expedition and was replaced by the artists Adrien Taunay and Hércules Florence. However, he remained on his own in Brazil until 1825, exploring and recording his many impressions of daily life in the provinces of Mato Grosso, Pernambuco, Bahia, Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro. He produced mostly drawings and watercolors.
- More about Johann Moritz Rugandas

SERRA DOS ORGAOS BY GEORG GRIMM

GEORG GRIMM (1846-1887) 

 Pedra do Sino (2,263m- 7,425 ft)

Dedo de Deus (1,682m - 5,551ft) 

Escalavrado  (1,490m -4,890 ft) 

Brazil

 In Serra dos Órgãos seen from Teresópolis, 1885, oil on canvas, Private collection 

The mountains 

Pedra do Sino (Bell Rock) at 2,263 metres (7,425 ft),  Dedo de Deus (God's finger) at 1,682m (5,551ft) and  Escalavrado at 1,692 m (5,551 ft) are the highest  peaks int the Serra dos Órgãos  (Organ Range), a mountain range located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and containing the Serra dos Órgãos National Park. The peaks with steep rock walls are dramatic features that can be seen on a clear day from Rio de Janeiro, which is 50 kilometres (31 mi) distant. The Serra dos Órgãos cover san area of 20,024 hectares (49,480 acres). The range is an escarpment on the northern edge of the Guanabara Graben between the cities of Petropolis and Teresopolis. The name comes from perceived resemblance of the vertical rock formations created by erosion to the tubes of organs.

A north west fracture is exposed at the plateau's rock surfaces, which defines the direction of the ridges and valleys along the escarpment. One of these ridges contains several granite peaks including God's Finger. Formation of the rocks may have occurred around 620 million years ago. North east vertical fractures, spaced regularly about every 500 m (1,600 ft), cut the north west structures at right angles. Erosion along these fractures has isolated the massive rock blocks. The valleys have well-preserved deposits of debris that has fallen from the rock walls. In November 1981 a period of intense rain triggered hundreds of shallow landslides and flows of debris that blocked the BR-116 highway and killed about 20 people.

The painter 
Johann Georg Grimm  was a German painter, designer and decorator who is best known for the work he produced during a lengthy stay in Brazil. He worked his way across Bavaria, finally arriving in Munich in 1868, where he had accumulated just enough money to study at the Academy of Fine Arts under Karl von Piloty and Franz Adam. Despite living in a great poverty, he completed his studies successfully. He briefly served in the Franco-Prussian War, where he met the painter Thomas Georg Driendl, who would later join him in Brazil and work with him on several projects.
In 1872, he went on foot to Berlin, where a benefactor helped him to study fresco painting. He left Berlin later that year and headed for Italy. After extensive travels through Italy, North Africa via Sicily, Spain, France and England, he finally found himself in Lisbon and decided to go to Brazil, probably arriving in late 1877 or early 1878. He settled in Rio de Janeiro and soon teamed up with a fellow German immigrant who owned a painting and decorating company. His interest in landscapes began when he was hired by the owners of the nearby fazendas to paint topographical pictures of their properties, which he executed with photographic precision.
He briefly returned to Germany from 1880 to 1881, following the death of his father, then took off travelling again; this time eastward, to Greece, Turkey, Palestine and Egypt. After a stay in Corsica, he returned to Brazil. Shortly after his arrival, he and his old friend Driendl were hired to create decorations at the Liceu Literário Português which, unfortunately, were destroyed by fire in 1932. He then participated in an exhibition presented by the Sociedade Propagadora das Belas Artes, where he displayed the works he had painted after his earlier travel.  He received the Gold Medal and much public praise, which resulted in his appointment to a vacant chair at the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes,  obtained for him with the recommendation of Emperor Pedro II. One of the first things he did there was introduce the practice of plein-air painting.
Continuous disagreements with the Academy's leadership over his teaching methodology led to his resignation in 1884. Some of his students left with him and formed what came to be known as the "Grupo Grimm". It included many artists who would later become very well-known, such as Giovanni Battista Castagneto and Antônio Parreiras. The group had their first exhibition later that year at the Exposição Geral de Belas Artes, and several of them came away with Gold Medals.
Their association lasted only slightly more than a year, then broke up when Grimm was once again struck with wanderlust and moved to Minas Gerais, where he had worked during his first stay in the country. One of his initial projects there involved painting the curtains for the opera house in Sabará.This was followed by a tour of the coffee plantations, where he painted the life and work there as well as the architectural features he had depicted earlier.
During this time, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. In June 1887, already ravaged by the disease, he called together his friends to say goodbye. He stayed for a short time with his brother in Wengen then, following his doctor's advice, went to Merano. Then, seeking a climate that was even more favorable, he went to Palermo. He died at the hospital there and was buried nearby.