Ema Gordon Klabin Cultural Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Ema Gordon Klabin Cultural Foundation (in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

 Fundação Cultural Ema Gordon Klabin) is an art museum located in the city of São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. Officially established in 1978, it is a not-for-profit
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 private institution, legally declared as an organization of federal public interest. It was created by the Brazilian collector and philanthropist Ema Gordon Klabin (1907–1994), with the purpose of preserving and displaying her art collection, as well as promoting cultural, artistic and scientific activities. The foundation is headquartered in Ema's former house in Jardins
Jardins
Jardins is the name given to an upper class region of São Paulo city, which includes the neighbourhoods of:* Jardim Paulista* Jardim América* Jardim Europa* Jardim PaulistanoAll are comprised within Pinheiros subprefecture....

 district, specially designed by architect Alfredo Ernesto Becker in the 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...

 to hold her collection. The house is surrounded by a 4,000 square meters garden projected by Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx
Roberto Burle Marx
Roberto Burle Marx was a Brazilian landscape architect whose designs of parks and gardens made him world famous. He is accredited with having introduced modernist landscape architecture to Brazil...

.

The Foundation's collection includes more than 1,500 pieces, covering some of the most compelling periods of Western art history
Western art history
Western art is the art of the North American and European countries, and art created in the forms accepted by those countries.Written histories of Western art often begin with the art of the Ancient Middle East, Ancient Egypt and the Ancient Aegean civilisations, dating from the 3rd millennium BC...

, from Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 and Etruscan
Etruscan civilization
Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...

 civilizations to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an masters, with important works from the Dutch
Dutch School (painting)
The Dutch School were painters in the Netherlands from the early Renaissance to the Baroque. It includes Early Netherlandish and Dutch Renaissance artists active in the northern Low Countries and, later, Dutch Golden Age painting in the United Provinces.Many painters, sculptors and architects of...

, Flemish
Early Netherlandish painting
Early Netherlandish painting refers to the work of artists active in the Low Countries during the 15th- and early 16th-century Northern renaissance, especially in the flourishing Burgundian cities of Bruges and Ghent...

, Italian
Art of Italy
The history of Italian art is in many ways also the history of Western art. After Etruscan civilization and especially the Roman Republic and Empire that dominated this part of the world for many centuries, Italy was central to European art during the Renaissance. Italy also saw European artistic...

 and French
French art
French art consists of the visual and plastic arts originating from the geographical area of France...

 schools, as well as works from asian cultures
Asian art
Asian art can refer to art amongst many cultures in Asia.-Various types of Asian art:*Afghan art*Azerbaijanian art*Balinese art*Bhutanese art*Buddhist art*Burmese contemporary art*Chinese art*Eastern art*Indian art*Iranian art*Islamic art...

, African
African art
African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of people, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African...

 and pre-Columbian art
Pre-Columbian art
Pre-Columbian art is the visual arts of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, North, Central, and South Americas until the late 15th and early 16th centuries, and the time period marked by Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas....

. Brazilian art
Brazilian art
Brazil was colonized by Portugal in the middle of the 16th century. In those early times, owing to the primitive state of Portuguese civilization there, not much could be done in regard to art expression. The original inhabitants of the land, pre-Columbian Indian peoples, most likely produced...

 is also outlined in the collection, which includes examples ranging from colonial period to the first generations of modernists
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...

. The Foundation's library holds an assemblage of rare books, ranging from illuminated manuscripts to incunables.

Ema Klabin

Born in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

 in 1907, Ema Gordon Klabin was the second daughter of the Lithuanian immigrants Fanny and Hessel Klabin. Her father was one of the founders of Klabin
Klabin
Klabin is the biggest paper producer, exporter and recycler in Brazil. It is the leading manufacturer of packaging paper and board, corrugated boxes, industrial sacks and timber in logs. It has 17 industrial plants in Brazil and one in Argentina...

, a leading paper manufacturer company in Brazil. She spent a great part of her childhood in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, making frequent travels to her homeland. Taken by surprise by the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, the family, which had been living in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 since 1913, was forced to move to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, where they stayed until 1919. During this period, Ema obtained her only formal education. After returning to Brazil, she only studied with private teachers, since at that time there were no conditions for women to study, except at the Catholic school
Catholic school
Catholic schools are maintained parochial schools or education ministries of the Catholic Church. the Church operates the world's largest non-governmental school system...

s, which she could not attend due to her Jewish origin. She grew as a great appreciator of music and art, an avid reader, and frequenter of concerts, theater, opera and ballet. She soon developed great interest in collecting. Her first acquisitions were oriental rugs, porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...

 and silverware
Silver (household)
Household silver or silverware includes dishware, cutlery and other household items made of sterling, Britannia or Sheffield plate silver. The term is often extended to items made of stainless steel...

.

After Hessel Klabin's death in 1946, Ema and her sister, Eva, became heiresses of the family's fortune. Ema also became her father's successor at the company council. She never married nor had children, dedicating herself exclusevely to business affairs, philanthropic and cultural activities. As her sister, Ema also continued to expand her art collection, making frequent travels to Europe and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 to acquire new itens. In 1948, she commissioned the architect Alfredo Ernesto Becker to project her a new house in a plot of land she inhrited from her father, located in the Jardins district, in order to hold her growing collection. Some time later, she would order the construction of a winter country house in Campos do Jordão
Campos do Jordão
Campos do Jordão is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2003 was 47,903 and the area is 290.27 km². The elevation is 1,628 m....

, when there was no space left to hold her frequent acquisitions.

Ema became significantly involved in the cultural life of São Paulo. She served as a member of the boards of trustees of the São Paulo Museum of Art, the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art
São Paulo Museum of Modern Art
The São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, , is located in Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo....

 and the São Paulo Art Biennial
São Paulo Art Biennial
The São Paulo Art Biennial was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennial , which serves as its role model....

. She collaborated at the creation of the Lasar Segall Museum and the Magda Tagliaferro
Magda Tagliaferro
Magdalena Maria Yvonne Tagliaferro was a Brazilian-born pianist of French extraction. Born in Petropolis, Brazil, she studied under Antonin Marmontel and Alfred Cortot...

 Foundation, and was also a member and supporter of the Sociedade de Cultura Artística
Sociedade de Cultura Artística
In 1912, a group of poets, journalists, musicians, lawyers, professors and businessmen founded a society to provide high culture to support São Paulo's economic development, with the promotion of evenings of music and literature....

 and of the São Paulo Philarmonic Orchestra. Among her philanthropic activities, her most significant work was the donation of the amount necessary to buy the lot where the Albert Einstein Hospital
Albert Einstein Hospital
The Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein is one of the most important Brazilian hospitals, located in the Morumbi district, west zone of São Paulo city, Brazil....

 would be built, as well as organizing fund-raising activities to help finance its construction. She also collaborated with the Association of Parents and Friends of the Handicapped of São Paulo (APAE), the Association for Assistance to Children with Birth Defects (AACD) and the Cancer Hospital.

In the 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...

, childless, Ema began to concern herself about the future of her collection. One of her first ideas was to donate major part of it to Brazilian museums. But after the tragic fire which destroyed almost the entire collection of the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art in 1978, she decided, as her sister, to create a foundation with the purpose of keeping the collection together and turning her house into a museum open to public visitation after her death. Ema died in 1994, aged 86.

The Foundation

The Foundation was officially registered in 1978. After Ema's death, her house remained closed for three years, until the end of 1996, when the architect Paulo de Freitas Costa was invited to set up a team to begin the activities and was later named curator of the institution. The work of researching and cataloging the collection began in 1997, conducted through consultations with specialists and institutions within Brazil and abroad, aiming to solve questions related to identification, attribution and authenticity of the pieces, beside determining their artistic and historic value. Restoration actions were also carried out in many pieces through agreements or collaboration of other institutions. The definition that best applies to the Ema Klabin Foundation is that of a "house-museum", where a "closed collection" is permanently arrangend according to the taste and wish of its creator, thus preserving the original character, idiosyncrasy and personality of the collector.

In recent years, the Ema Klabin Foundation has been making efforts at disseminating information about the collection, including by lending pieces for temporary exhibitions held in museums of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...

. Pieces of the collection have also been shown in foreign exhibitions, such as Brazil through European Eyes, held in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Brésil Baroque, held at the Petit Palais
Petit Palais
The Petit Palais is a museum in Paris, France. Built for the Universal Exhibition in 1900 to Charles Girault's designs, it now houses the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts ....

 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Chaim Soutine, held in the Musée d'Art Moderne de Céret
Musée d'Art Moderne de Céret
Le Musée d'Art Moderne de Céret is a modern art museum in Céret, Pyrénées-Orientales, France, created by Pierre Brune and Frank Burty Haviland in 1950 with the personal support of their friends Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse who were involved in its creation....

 and the Jewish Museum Vienna
Jewish Museum Vienna
The Jüdisches Museum Wien, or the Jewish Museum Vienna, is a museum of Jewish history, life and religion in Austria. The present museum was founded in 1988 in the Palais Eskeles in the Dorotheergasse, Vienna, and has distinguished itself by a very active programme of exhibitions.- History :The...

, and the retrospective exhibition Lasar Segall: un expressionista brasileño held at Museo de Arte Moderno
Museo de Arte Moderno
The Museo de Arte Moderno or Museum of Modern Art is located in Chapultepec Park, Mexico City, Mexico. The museum is part of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes and prepares exhibitions of national and international contemporary artists...

 in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

 and the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires
MALBA
The Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires is a museum located on Figueroa Alcorta Avenue, in the Palermo section of Buenos Aires.Created by Argentine businessman Eduardo Constantini, the museum is operated by the not-for-profit Fundación MALBAConstantini, and was inaugurated on September 21,...

.

The house

The headquarters of the Ema Klabin Foundation is located in a 4,000 square meters lot at Jardim Europa district, an upscale subdivision designed by Hipólito Pujol Júnior at the end of the 1920s
1920s
File:1920s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Third Tipperary Brigade Flying Column No. 2 under Sean Hogan during the Irish Civil War; Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol in accordance to the 18th amendment, which made alcoholic beverages illegal throughout the entire decade; In...

, following the model of the British-style garden-cities in the adjoining district of Jardim América, projected by the English urban planner Richard Barry Parker
Richard Barry Parker
Richard Barry Parker was an English architect and urban planner associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement. He was primarily known for his architectural partnership with Raymond Unwin.-Biography:...

 in the previous decade. The house has a floor space of 900 square meters and was projected in the late 1940s
1940s
File:1940s decade montage.png|Above title bar: events which happened during World War II : From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day"; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany...

 by architect Alfredo Ernesto Becker. Its gardens were designed by Roberto Burle Marx
Roberto Burle Marx
Roberto Burle Marx was a Brazilian landscape architect whose designs of parks and gardens made him world famous. He is accredited with having introduced modernist landscape architecture to Brazil...

.

The house presents an eclectic style, blending modern and classic elements. It seems to be inspired by European palace pavilions, particularly by the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....

, visited by Ema in her childhood and teenage years. It is a single floor building organized in a long semicircular gallery, facing the garden, around which all the rooms are distributed. Although it presents an impressive scale, as seen by the nearly five-meter-high ceilings, it possesses relatively few rooms.

African art

The collection of African art
African art
African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of people, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African...

 comprises religious and ritual objects, executed in wood, ivory and bronze by distinct Ethnic group
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

s of Western Africa, such as Ashanti, Bambara, Yoruba
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...

, Mossi, Dan, Baoulé
Baoulé
The Baoulé are an Akan people and one of the largest groups in the Ivory Coast. The Baoulé are farmers who live in the eastern side of Côte d'Ivoire . The Baoule people are represented by religion, art, festivals, and equal society . There are more than sixty-five different Akan-speaking ethnic...

, Bakongo and Bakuba, most of which dating back to the late 19th and early 20th century.

Asian art

The collection of Asian art
Asian art
Asian art can refer to art amongst many cultures in Asia.-Various types of Asian art:*Afghan art*Azerbaijanian art*Balinese art*Bhutanese art*Buddhist art*Burmese contemporary art*Chinese art*Eastern art*Indian art*Iranian art*Islamic art...

 includes objects proceeding from many different cultures, from Near East
Near East
The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...

 to the Pacific Islands
Pacific Islands
The Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands are also sometimes collectively called Oceania, although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago....

, including Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, Persia, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and Southeastern Asia. It comprises rugs
Oriental rug
An authentic oriental rug is a handmade carpet that is either knotted with pile or woven without pile.By definition - Oriental rugs are rugs that come from the orient...

, sculptures, paintings, prints, furniture and decorative and ritual itens. Among these, Chinese artworks stand out, both in quality and quantity. The collection includes an important assemblage of ritual bronzes dating back to Shang
Shang Dynasty
The Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty was, according to traditional sources, the second Chinese dynasty, after the Xia. They ruled in the northeastern regions of the area known as "China proper" in the Yellow River valley...

 (14th to 9th century BC) and Zhou
Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty. Although the Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, the actual political and military control of China by the Ji family lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as...

 dynasties (10th to 3rd century BC), ceramic funerary figures produced during the Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

 (8th century AD) and polychrome
Polychrome
Polychrome is one of the terms used to describe the use of multiple colors in one entity. It has also been defined as "The practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." Polychromatic light is composed of a number of different wavelengths...

d wood sculptures of the Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

 (14th to 17th century).

Brazilian art

The Colonial Brazil
Colonial Brazil
In the history of Brazil, Colonial Brazil, officially the Viceroyalty of Brazil comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to kingdom alongside Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.During the over 300 years...

ian art is represented by a group of 24 Baroque
Baroque in Brazil
The baroque in Brazil was introduced at the beginning of the seventeenth century by Catholic missionaries, especially Jesuits, who brought the new style as an instrument of Christian indoctrination. The epic poem Prosopopéia , by Bento Teixeira, is one of its initial milestones...

 sacred images, as well as by a number of polychrome
Polychrome
Polychrome is one of the terms used to describe the use of multiple colors in one entity. It has also been defined as "The practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." Polychromatic light is composed of a number of different wavelengths...

d wood carving
Wood carving
Wood carving is a form of working wood by means of a cutting tool in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation of a wooden object...

s (columns, doorways, finials etc.). Of particular importance are those made by Valentim da Fonseca e Silva (Master Valentim), proceeding from the demolished church of São Pedro dos Clérigos, in Rio de Janeiro. From modernist Brazilian artists, the collection includes important paintings by Lasar Segall
Lasar Segall
The artist Lasar Segall was a Brazilian Jewish painter, engraver and sculptor born in Lithuania. Segall's work is derived from impressionism, expressionism and modernism...

, Candido Portinari
Cândido Portinari
Candido Portinari was one of the most important Brazilian painters and also a prominent and influential practitioner of the neo-realism style in painting....

, Emiliano Di Cavalcanti
Emiliano Di Cavalcanti
Emiliano Augusto Cavalcanti de Albuquerque Melo , known as Di Cavalcanti, was a Brazilian painter who sought to produce a form of Brazilian art free of any noticeable European influences...

 and Tarsila do Amaral
Tarsila do Amaral
Tarsila do Amaral, , known simply as Tarsila, is considered to be one of the leading Latin American modernist artists, described as "the Brazilian painter who best achieved Brazilian aspirations for nationalistic expression in a modern style." She was a member of the Grupo dos Cinco , which...

, as well as sculptures by Victor Brecheret
Victor Brecheret
Victor Brecheret was an Italian-Brazilian sculptor. He lived most of his life in São Paulo, except for his studies in Paris in his early twenties...

, Bruno Giorgi
Bruno Giorgi
Bruno Giorgi was an Italian Brazilian sculptor whose works are displayed at several national sites. Although born in Brazil he spent much of his youth in Europe as his family returned to Italy when he was six and he did not return to Brazil until 1939.- External links :**...

 and Bella Prado. There are also drawings and prints by Clóvis Graciano
Clóvis Graciano
Clóvis Graciano was a Brazilian artist that worked with painting, drawing, scenography, costume design, engraving and illustration....

, Iberê Camargo
Iberê Camargo
Iberê Bassani Camargo was a Brazilian painter, one of the greatest expressionist artists from his country.-External links:*...

, Maria Bonomi, Marcelo Grassmann
Marcelo Grassmann
Marcelo Grassmann - Brazilian engraver and draughtsman born in 1925.Initially interested in sculpture, Grassmann became a wood engraver in the 1940s and in the 1950s became famous as a metal engraver and draughtsman....

, Poty Lazzarotto
Poty Lazzarotto
Napoleon Potyguara Lazzarotto, better known as Poty was a Brazilian artist. His murals - often made of ceramic tiles- can be seen in many locaties of Brazil as well as in Portugal, France and Germany....

, etc.

Classical antiquity

The collection of antiquities
Antiquities
Antiquities, nearly always used in the plural in this sense, is a term for objects from Antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures...

 at the Ema Klabin Foundation consists of works in ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...

, terracotta, bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

 and marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

 from Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

, Etruscan
Etruscan civilization
Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...

 and Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 civilizations, most of which produced between the 4th century BC and the 1st century AD. It comprises sculptures, aryballos
Aryballos
An aryballos was a small spherical or globular flask with a narrow neck used in Ancient Greece. It was used to contain perfume or oil, and is often depicted in vase paintings as being used by athletes bathing...

, amphorae, Tanagra figurine
Tanagra figurine
The Tanagra figurines were a mold-cast type of Greek terracotta figurines produced from the later fourth century BCE, primarily in the Boeotian town of Tanagra. They were coated with a liquid white slip before firing and were sometimes painted afterwards in naturalistic tints with watercolors, such...

s, etc. Outstanding among the sculptures is a Greek marble head of Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...

 (5th century BC).

Decorative and applied arts

The collection of decorative and applied arts includes a relatively large number of pieces, such as light fixtures, rugs, small statuettes, fireplace pediments, mirrors and decorative objects in general. There is a large collection of tableware, including porcelain (Sèvres
Manufacture nationale de Sèvres
The manufacture nationale de Sèvres is a Frit porcelain porcelain tendre factory at Sèvres, France. Formerly a royal, then an imperial factory, the facility is now run by the Ministry of Culture.-Brief history:...

, Limoges
Limoges porcelain
Limoges porcelain designates hard-paste porcelain produced by factories near the city of Limoges, France beginning in the late 18th century, but does not refer to a particular manufacturer.- History :...

, Meissen
Meissen porcelain
Meissen porcelain or Meissen china is the first European hard-paste porcelain that was developed from 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger, continued his work and brought porcelain to the market...

) and crystal
Lead glass
Lead glass is a variety of glass in which lead replaces the calcium content of a typical potash glass. Lead glass contains typically 18–40 weight% lead oxide , while modern lead crystal, historically also known as flint glass due to the original silica source, contains a minimum of 24% PbO...

 glassware
Glassware
This list of glassware includes drinking vessels , tableware, such as dishes, and flatware used to set a table for eating a meal, general glass items such as vases, and glasses used in the catering industry whether made of glass or plastics such as polystyrene and...

 (Baccarat
Baccarat (company)
Baccarat Crystal is a manufacturer of fine crystal glassware located in Baccarat, France. The company owns two museums: the Musée Baccarat in Baccarat, Meurthe-et-Moselle and the Galerie-Musée Baccarat, on the Place des États-Unis in Paris...

, Bohemia
Bohemian glass
Bohemian glass, or Bohemia crystal, is a decorative glass produced in regions of Bohemia and Silesia, now in the current state of the Czech Republic, since the 13th century. Oldest archaeology excavations of glass-making sites date to around 1250 and are located in the Lusatian Mountains of...

).

The furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

 collection is mainly composed by Italian and French pieces, ranging from 16th to 19th century, including tables, cabinets and other itens. The most important works in the collection, however, are those of Portuguese-Brazilian
Portuguese-Brazilian
Portuguese Brazilians are Brazilian citizens whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Portugal. Most of the Portuguese arrived throughout the centuries to Brazil, sought economic opportunities...

 origin, produced with Jacaranda
Jacaranda
Jacaranda is a genus of 49 species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of South America , Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. It is also found in Asia, especially in Nepal...

, being the most noticeable example a Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 games table desk
Games table desk
A Games table desk is an antique desk form which combines the type of surface required for writing with a surface etched or veneered in the pattern of a given board game. It also provides sufficient storage space for writing implements and a separate space for storing game accessories such as...

 with several ivory marquetry covers, commissioned by the Portuguese royalty. The collection also includes many examples of upholstery produced by Terry Della Stuffa, as well as Chinese tables and cabinets, etc.

The museum also holds an expressive silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

ware collection, composed by over 150 pieces. Outstanding among these are the assemblage of antique ceremonial chalices, proceeding from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, the collection of 19th century Portuguese toothpick holders, the collection of English and Portuguese candlesticks, incense boats and channdeliers and the Brazilian religious silverware, which includes candlesticks, processional lanterns, etc. The collection of silver tableware is mainly composed by British pieces, executed by important silversmith sculptors, such as Paul de Lamerie
Paul de Lamerie
Paul de Lamerie was an English silversmith. The Victoria and Albert Museum describes him as the "greatest silversmith working in England in the 18th century". Though his mark raises the market value of silver, his output was large and not all his pieces are outstanding...

, Paul Storr
Paul Storr
Paul Storr was an English silversmith, sculptor, and designer working in the Neoclassical style during the late eighteenth and early nineteentch centuries...

 and John Wakelin.

European art

The collection includes a number of Italian paintings dating from 16th to 18th century. Outstanding among them are the religious
Christian art
Christian art is sacred art produced in an attempt to illustrate, supplement and portray in tangible form the principles of Christianity, though other definitions are possible. Most Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, although some have had strong objections to some forms of...

 and mythological
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...

 scenes by Raffaellino del Garbo
Raffaellino del Garbo
Raffaellino del Garbo was a Florentine painter of the early Renaissance.His real name was Raffaello Capponi; Del Garbo was a nickname, bestowed upon him seemingly from the graceful nicety of his earlier works. He has also been called Raffaello de Florentia, and Raffaello de Carolis or Karli...

, Giacomo Francia
Giacomo Francia
Giacomo Francia was an Italian engraver and artist.Francia was born in Bologna. His father Francesco Raibolini and brother Giulio Francia were also artists. Francia often worked with his brother, primarily on church altarpieces. He died in Bologna in 1567.-References:...

, Giovanni Battista Gaulli
Giovanni Battista Gaulli
Giovanni Battista Gaulli , also known as Baciccio, Il Baciccio or Baciccia , was a painter of the Italian High Baroque verging onto that of the Rococo...

 and Sebastiano Ricci
Sebastiano Ricci
Sebastiano Ricci was an Italian painter of the late Baroque school of Venice. About the same age as Piazzetta, and an elder contemporary of Tiepolo, he represents a late version of the vigorous and luminous Cortonesque style of grand manner fresco painting.-Early years:He was born in Belluno, son...

, besides the portraits
Portrait painting
Portrait painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to depict the visual appearance of the subject. Beside human beings, animals, pets and even inanimate objects can be chosen as the subject for a portrait...

 by Alessandro Allori
Alessandro Allori
Alessandro di Cristofano di Lorenzo del Bronzino Allori was an Italian portrait painter of the late Mannerist Florentine school....

 and Pompeo Batoni
Pompeo Batoni
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni was an Italian painter whose style incorporated elements of the French Rococo, Bolognese classicism, and nascent Neoclassicism.-Biography:He was born in Lucca, the son of a goldsmith, Paolino Batoni...

.

The collection presents a wide panorama of Flemish
Flemish painting
Flemish painting flourished from the early 15th century until the 17th century. Flanders delivered the leading painters in Northern Europe and attracted many promising young painters from neighbouring countries. These painters were invited to work at foreign courts and had a Europe-wide influence...

 and Dutch
Dutch School (painting)
The Dutch School were painters in the Netherlands from the early Renaissance to the Baroque. It includes Early Netherlandish and Dutch Renaissance artists active in the northern Low Countries and, later, Dutch Golden Age painting in the United Provinces.Many painters, sculptors and architects of...

 schools, ranging from 15th to 17th century, with a strong emphasis in Baroque paintings. It includes genre works, hunting scenes, landscapes
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...

, portraits and still life
Still life
A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...

s by artists as Jan Brueghel the Elder
Jan Brueghel the Elder
Jan Brueghel the Elder was a Flemish painter, son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and father of Jan Brueghel the Younger. Nicknamed "Velvet" Brueghel, "Flower" Brueghel, and "Paradise" Brueghel, of which the latter two were derived from his floral still lifes which were his favored subjects, while the...

, Jan van Goyen, David Teniers the Younger
David Teniers the Younger
David Teniers the Younger was a Flemish artist born in Antwerp, the son of David Teniers the Elder. His son David Teniers III and his grandson David Teniers IV were also painters...

, Gerard ter Borch
Gerard ter Borch
Gerard ter Borch was a Dutch genre painter, who lived in the Dutch Golden Age.-Biography:Gerard ter Borch was born in December 1617 in Zwolle in the province of Overijssel in the Dutch Republic....

, Abraham Brueghel
Abraham Brueghel
Abraham Brueghel was a Flemish painter from the famous family of artists. He was the son of Jan Brueghel the Younger, the grandson of Jan Brueghel the Elder and the great-grandson of Pieter Brueghel the Elder.-Early life:...

, Philips Wouwerman and Abraham Hondius
Abraham Hondius
Abraham Danielsz. Hondius was a Dutch Golden Age painter known his depictions of animals. He was the son of a city stonemason, Daniel Abramsz de Hondt....

, beside two small panels attributed to Dirk Bouts
Dirk Bouts
Dieric Bouts was an Early Netherlandish painter. According to Karel van Mander in his Het Schilderboeck of 1604, Bouts was born in Haarlem and was mainly active in Leuven , where he was city painter from 1468...

. The collection also includes two landscape paintings by Frans Post
Frans Post
Frans Janszoon Post was a Dutch painter. He was the first European artist to paint landscapes of America. In 1636 he traveled to Dutch Brazil at the invitation of Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen.- Biography :...

, including View of Olinda, probably the most valuable canvas in the museum.

Outstanding among the French paintings
French art
French art consists of the visual and plastic arts originating from the geographical area of France...

 is the canvas Ariadne by Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Jean-Baptiste Greuze was a French painter.-Early life:He was born at Tournus, Saône-et-Loire. He is generally said to have formed his own talent; this is, however, true only in the most limited sense, for at an early age his inclinations, though thwarted by his father, were encouraged by a...

. There are also landscapes and mythological scenes by Claude Lorrain
Claude Lorrain
Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English (also Claude Gellée, his real name, or in French Claude Gellée, , dit le Lorrain) Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English (also Claude Gellée, his real name, or in French...

, Gabriel Briard
Gabriel Briard
Gabriel Briard was a landscape and portrait painter of some grace and facility of hand, the master of Demarne, and the father of Mme. Le Brun. He visited Italy in 1749, became an Academician in 1768, and died in 1777.-References:...

, Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, a Still-life by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...

 and works by the painters of the School of Paris
School of Paris
School of Paris refers to two distinct groups of artists — a group of medieval manuscript illuminators, and a group of non-French artists working in Paris before World War I...

, like Chaim Soutine
Chaim Soutine
Chaïm Soutine was a Jewish painter from Belarus. Soutine made a major contribution to the expressionist movement while living in Paris....

 and Maurice de Vlaminck
Maurice de Vlaminck
Maurice de Vlaminck was a French painter. Along with André Derain and Henri Matisse he is considered one of the principal figures in the Fauve movement, a group of modern artists who from 1904 to 1908 were united in their use of intense color.-Life:Maurice de Vlaminck was born in Paris to a family...

, beside two important canvases by Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...

: À la campagne and Couple with flowers and a rooster.

The European collection also include prints by Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...

, Rembrandt, Francisco de Goya, Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...

, among others, as well as a number of Eastern icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...

s.

Pre-Columbian art

This small collection is composed by objects produced prior to the 16th century, proceeding from relevant archaeological site
Archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record.Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...

s in present-day Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

 and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, such as Tiwanaku
Tiwanaku
Tiwanaku, is an important Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia, South America. Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as one of the most important precursors to the Inca Empire, flourishing as the ritual and administrative capital of a major state power for approximately five...

, Chancay
Chancay
Chancay is a small city in the Lima Region of Peru. Its population is 26,958....

 and Nazca
Nazca
Nazca is a system of valleys on the southern coast of Peru, and the name of the region's largest existing town in the Nazca Province. It is also the name applied to the Nazca culture that flourished in the area between 300 BC and AD 800...

. It comprises works in terracotta, stone, wood and fabric produced by civilizations like Chavín
Chavín culture
The Chavín were a civilization that developed in the northern Andean highlands of Peru from 900 BC to 200 BC. They extended their influence to other civilizations along the coast. The Chavín were located in the Mosna Valley where the Mosna and Huachecsa rivers merge...

, Moche
Moche
'The Moche civilization flourished in northern Peru from about 100 AD to 800 AD, during the Regional Development Epoch. While this issue is the subject of some debate, many scholars contend that the Moche were not politically organized as a monolithic empire or state...

, Chimú
Chimú Culture
The Chimú were the residents of Chimor, with its capital at the city of Chan Chan, a large adobe city in the Moche Valley of present-day Trujillo, Peru. The culture arose about 900 AD. The Inca ruler Tupac Inca Yupanqui led a campaign which conquered the Chimú around 1470 AD,.This was just fifty...

, Toltec
Toltec
The Toltec culture is an archaeological Mesoamerican culture that dominated a state centered in Tula, Hidalgo in the early post-classic period of Mesoamerican chronology...

, and Nazca
Nazca culture
The Nazca culture was the archaeological culture that flourished from 100 to 800 CE beside the dry southern coast of Peru in the river valleys of the Rio Grande de Nazca drainage and the Ica Valley...

.

Library

The Ema Klabin Foundation Library holds a collection of more than 3,000 books. Though small in size, it includes an important set of rare works, such as illuminated manuscripts, incunabula and Aldine editions
Aldine Press
Aldine Press was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics . The Aldine Press is famous in the history of typography, among other things, for the introduction of italics...

. It also holds a collection of reports of European travelers in Brazil, ranging from 16th to 19th century, including works by André Thévet
André Thévet
André de Thevet was a French Franciscan priest, explorer, cosmographer and writer who travelled to Brazil in the 16th century...

, Arnoldus Montanus
Arnoldus Montanus
Arnoldus Montanus was a Dutch teacher and author. He published books on theology, history, and geography of both Holland and far-away countries....

, Robert Southey
Robert Southey
Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...

, Willem Blaeu
Willem Blaeu
Willem Janszoon Blaeu , also abbreviated to Willem Jansz. Blaeu, was a Dutch cartographer, atlas maker and publisher....

, Maria Graham, von Spix
Johann Baptist von Spix
Dr. Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix was a German naturalist.Spix was born in Höchstadt, Middle Franconia, as the seventh of eleven children. His boyhood home is the site of the Spix Museum , opened to the public in 2004...

, von Martius
Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius
Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius was a German botanist and explorer.Martius was born at Erlangen, where he graduated M.D. in 1814, publishing as his thesis a critical catalogue of plants in the botanic garden of the university...

, etc. Another highlight of the collection is the set of luxury books published by the Society of the One Hundred Bibliophiles of Brazil, illustrated by some of the most important Brazilian modernist artists.

See also

  • Eva Klabin Foundation
    Eva Klabin Foundation
    The Eva Klabin Foundation is an art museum located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a private institution established in 1990 by the Brazilian collector and philanthropist Eva Klabin , with the purpose of preserving and displaying the art collection gathered together during her life...

  • São Paulo Museum of Art
  • Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
    Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
    The Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo is one of the most important art museums in Brazil. It is housed in a 1900 building in Jardim da Luz, Downtown São Paulo, projected by Ramos de Azevedo and Domiziano Rossi to be the headquarters of the Lyceum of Arts and Crafts...


External links

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