Emygdio de Barros

• Name — Emygdio de Barros • Born — 1895 • Birthplace — Paraíba do Sul, Brazil • Died — 5 May 1986 • Place of death — Rio de Janeiro, Brazil • Occupation — painter and draftsman

Emygdio de Barros was born in 1895 in Paraíba do Sul of Rio de Janeiro state. He entered the technical course of lathe operator and, after its completion, joined the Arsenal de Marinha do Rio de Janeiro. In the Navy, he stood out for his drawings, and was sent to France, where he took a two-year refresher course. After completing the course and returning to Brazil in 1924, he abandoned his job. Later he was admitted to the Praia Vermelha hospital, diagnosed with schizophrenia. In 1944, Emygdio de Barros was transferred to the Pedro II Psychiatric Center of the Gustavo Riedel Hospital, located in Engenho de Dentro. Three years later, in February 1947, after more than two decades of internment in different psychiatric institutions, he began to attend the Occupational Therapy Section workshop created by Nise da Silveira at the hospital in Engenho de Dentro. From then on, Emydgio stood out as one of Nise's cameos, a set of painters who were discovered among the hospital inpatients whose work presented a high artistic level, being compared to the French painter Henri Matisse, but who was not recognized because of the prejudice against mental patients that existed at the time. Emydgio's talent had been a discovery of the German painter Almir Mavignier. Emygdio de Barros produced more than 3,300 paintings, gouaches, and drawings, being classified in the styles art brut, proposed by Jean Dubuffet, ‘virgin art’ by Mário Pedrosa, and concrete art.

• Carnival (oil on canvas, 1948); • Universal (oil on canvas, 1948); • The Municipal (oil on canvas, 1949).