Murals at the Library of Congress

Cândido Portinari - Murals in the Hispanic Reading Room

Cândido Portinari (1941). “Entry into the Forest.” Hispanic Foundation, Library of Congress; Washington D.C.

Cândido Portinari

Cândido Portinari

Candido Portinari (December 29, 1903 – February 6, 1962) was a Brazilian painter of Italian descent.

He is best known for his portrayals of Brazilian workers and peasants, but he dissociated himself from the revolutionary fervour of his Mexican contemporaries, and painted in a style that shows affinities with Picasso's ‘classical’ works of the 1920s (which he saw during a three-year period he spent in Europe, 1928–31). In the 1940s his work took on greater pathos and he also turned to biblical subjects.

United Nations Building Murals by Candido Portinari

He gained an international reputation, and his major commissions included murals for the Hispanic section of the Library of Congress in Washington (1942) and for the United Nations Building in New York (two panels representing War and Peace, 1953–5).¹

1989 Brazilian banknote featuring Portinari on both sides

Hispanic Reading Room at the Library of Congress

The Hispanic Reading Room is an important access point at the Library of Congress for researchers working on the Caribbean, Latin America, Spain and Portugal; the indigenous cultures of those areas; and peoples throughout the world historically influenced by Luso-Hispanic heritage, including the Latina/o/e/x community in the United States. Staff in the Hispanic Reading Room recommend collection items in all formats from and about these regions in collaboration with colleagues throughout the General and Special Collections. This work has resulted in millions of physical and digital items cared for and served in nearly every reading room at the Library of Congress. ²

Four murals by Candido Portinari at the Library of Congress

Four murals by Candido Portinari are located in the Hispanic Reading Room (1941) depicting the struggles of the Hispanic Americans. ³

• Discovery of the Land,

• Entry into the Forest,

• Teaching of the Indians

• Discovery of Gold

Murals by Cândido Portinari tells the story of the Portinari murals in the Hispanic Foundation (now the Hispanic Reading Room in the Library of Congress).⁴

Lecture on Candido Portinari's Murals at Library of Congress

Additional insight into Library of Congress Murals.⁵

1. Ian Chilvers. “Portinari, Candido.” The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists. Oxford University Press, 2015;

João Cândido Portinari. «Projeto Portinari». Estudos avançados 14, n.^o 38 (2000): 369-400; War and Peace Panels War and Peace (Portinari) - Wikipedia

2. Hispanic Reading Room | Library of Congress.

3. Candido Portinari's Murals. Library of Congress. 2024. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-11567/.

4. Library of Congress. Hispanic Foundation. Murals by Cândido Portinari in the Hispanic Foundation of the Library of Congress. [U.S. Govt. print off.], 1943. Digitized copy.

5. Fabiana Serviddio. «Los murales de Portinari en la Sala Hispánica de la Biblioteca del Congreso de los EE.UU.: construcción plástica de una identidad panamericana (Portinari’s murals at the Hispanic Room of the United States’ Library of Congress: the building of a Panamerican identity through the arts. Cuadernos del CILHA : revista del Centro Interdisciplinario de Literatura Hispanoamericana 12, n.^o 1 (2011): 124-52;

Gardner, Elizabeth Ellen. “Visualizing ‘Americans’ in the Library of Congress’s Murals: A Prescription for How to Relate and Belong.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 24, no. 4 (2021): 613–44.