Handwritten letter from Emiliano Di Cavalcanti (1939)

"I sold very little and was unable to pay a debt. There were many compliments, but the man lives not only on glory…"

• Unpublished handwritten letter from Emiliano Di Cavalcanti to a friend.
• In Portuguese.
• A leaf.
• 19 cm x 25.7 cm.
• Paris, January 1, 1939.
• Good state.
• Unique piece.

Transcription of the letter

Paris, January 1, 1939

My old friend

This is the first letter from 1939… Another year of this painful existence that God gave me. Finally, you can live. I write to you at half past midnight [in] a cafe, next to the Radio and that's why / the paper is horrible. Which will bring me 1939. I don't know, nor do I want to predict. 1938 ended with an exhibition of mine. I sold very little and was unable to pay a debt. The compliments were many, but / man lives not only on glory... / His letters are scarce, which doesn't stop bothering me, because I think about a million things. However, I believe that you are in good health and that nothing has happened to Ignez. / I'm really tired. This stupid job at Radio is killing me and I need something else, which is difficult to find. / Sometimes I really miss Brazil. On very cold days, I only remember my Paquetá, that heat. / Noemia will live separately from me tomorrow, she has rented a studio / and she is very happy. I hope she is happy and works hard in her new house. / This letter is to wish you a Happy New Year. You are the / only friend from Brazil who remembers me, I have the impression / that outside of you, no one else in Brazil knows / that I exist, hugs to Ignez and […]

Yours / Di Cavalcanti (signed)

There will be no Brazilian among the 200 million who populate the country who does not know the name Emiliano Di Cavalcanti (1897 - 1976). The great modernist painter, who illustrated the colors of Brazil and popularized national art around the world, is still present in the popular imagination, but what was the life of the man behind the prestigious artist like? After all, Cavalcanti also went through times of war, longing and melancholy.

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1897, Di Cavalcanti, still young, got involved with paints and brushes, creating illustrations for the Fon Fon magazine. In 1916, he moved to São Paulo to study law, but soon began attending the studio of impressionist George Fischer Elpons. From then on, he never left the canvas, created the Modern Art Week at the Municipal Theater of São Paulo, joined the communist party, married the painter Noêmia Brandão, and, finally, settled in Paris, in the troubled decade from 1930.

However, his stay in the City of Lights does not seem to have been smooth sailing for the artist, a secret he revealed in an intimate letter written to a friend. In his words, Cavalcanti says that his work on a radio at that time tired and bored him. The great painter also states that, at the beginning of the year, he had an immense debt that worried him and meant that he did not have good expectations regarding 1939. Little did he know that that would be his last year in France, since, with the At the beginning of the Second World War, Di would return to Brazil for one of the most fertile phases of his career as a painter.

Back in his homeland, Cavalcanti would openly combat abstractionism, travel to Uruguay and Argentina, exhibiting in the city of Buenos Aires, and meet Zuília, who would become one of his favorite muses, in addition to illustrating books by renowned figures such as Vinícius de Moraes and Jorge Amado. He would return to Paris in 1946 to look for some of his missing paintings, but after the Second World War ended, this would be a new world.

However, still at the end of the 30s, Cavalcanti talks, in his letter, about how much he misses Brazil and the warmth of his Paquetá; and also reveals that his wife, Noêmia, would move to a studio even if they remained married. The artist wishes him happiness, but didn't he feel alone?

The beginning of 1939 was certainly a difficult time for the great artist, marked by longing, melancholy and doubts. Finally, Di Cavalcanti returned to Brazil to soon conquer the world again, teaching that, sometimes, a step back is also a step forward, and, mainly, showing that life is made of movements, sometimes linear, but mostly commuting, a coming and going that often lacks meaning or explanation for those who sail on its waves, but always follows its destination.

Di Cavalcanti is one of the main names in Brazilian painting and letters from them are very rare, especially with relevant content like this.