Modesto brocos, um degeneracionista? Reflexões sobre o pensamento eugênico e a defesa do embranquecimento em Redenção de cã (1895)

Abstract

It is common to interpret Modesto Brocos’s (1852–1936) painting “The Redemption of Ca” (1895) as an expression of the “whitening” project during the early years of the Brazilian Republic. However, despite the use of the work, just a few years after its creation, to defend the whitening project, the artist’s thinking appears more nuanced when we examine his body of work as a whole. When comparing his paintings with his textbook and a utopian novel, we find evidence that the whitening project in Brazil was an idea that Brocos presented for discussion rather than one he actively defended. Brocos appears to have been interested in eugenic ideas, but he identified with the group of intellectuals who viewed the process of miscegenation as difficult and challenging.