Jose Ferraz Almeida Júnior
The scene unfolds in an artist's studio. In the background, the painter is depicted wearing a long blue robe and a small round hat. With his right hand, he pulls back a heavy striped curtain, peering at something or someone beyond the door. In his left hand, he holds a palette—its paints arranged according to the academic practices of the time—and brushes. The scene suggests that a sudden knock at the door (hence the "inopportune" of the title) has interrupted the artist. Rising to see who it might be, the painter has inadvertently startled his model, positioned in the left foreground—a young woman with black hair tied in a bun wearing a shirt and socks. Embarrassed, she has withdrawn behind an easel and the curtain.
The author of today's painting, Almeida Júnior, was a Brazilian artist and designer; one of the first there to paint in the Realistic tradition of Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet. Sadly, Almeida Júnior's life had a dramatic end but he remains one of the most prominent Brazilian painters.
P.S. For more art from Brazil, see the articles below!