In addition to being a painter, Manuel de Araújo Porto-Alegre (1806−79) was a writer in the tradition of Brazilian Romanticism, an architect, and a diplomat who spent his entire life in the colonial environment imposed by the Empire of Dom Pedro II. In 1826 he started studying painting at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes [National School of Fine Arts] with Jean-Baptiste Debret, one of the “imported” teachers at the Missão Artística Francesa [French Art Mission] (1816) established by the Emperor. In fact, Porto-Alegre was a painter and decorator at the Imperial Palace at Petropolis.
At one point in his life the painter changed his name to Manuel de Araújo Pitangueira, thus underscoring his nationalism by choosing the name of a Brazilian tree. At the end of his life he occupied the 32nd Seat at the Academia Brasileira de Letras [Brazilian Academy of Letters]. He also joined forces with the poets Gonçalves de Magalhães and Francisco de Sales Torres Homem and together they founded Niterói magazine (Paris, 1837) and, subsequently, the Minerva Brasiliense newspaper (Rio de Janeiro, 1843−45), where he found a place to express his “Brazilian” vocation.
He and Gonçalves Dias and Joaquim Manoel de Macedo started Guanabara magazine (1849−56), where this essay was published. This magazine was considered the official organ of Brazilian Romanticism. In 1852, Porto-Alegre entered politics, holding office in the Câmara Municipal [Municipal Chambers] in Rio de Janeiro, where he worked in urban development and public health.
He had become interested in things of this nature about ten years earlier. In his opinion, and as he says in his essay, the city is “mainly imported.” In fact, imitation had been the trademark of the Imperial tradition imposed by the French Mission that, interestingly enough, included Debret, his historical painting teacher. Everything to do with the fine arts and local industrial projects was imported so that, in 1843 when this article was published, Brazil was in a state of total colonial dependence. In Porto-Alegre’s opinion, the Empire of Brazil had been deluged with “one fashion after another,” recycling “every French fashion from the last sixty years.” Consequently, as he says in his essay, “Brazil is the product of other civilizations, but not of ours.”