Oswaldo Goeldi

A Brazilian artist and renowned engraver, Oswaldo Goeldi is considered a master of the art of expressionist xylography – the art of engraving on wood. Working with woodcut and lithography, he achieved somber expressiveness with morbid themes.

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1895, Goeldi lived in Belém, in the state Pará, until he was 6 years old. His father, Swiss naturalist Émil Goeldi, was based there as director of the Museu de História Natural e Etnografia do Pará (now the Emílio Goeldi Museum). After returning with his family to Switzerland In 1910, he started his studies in Bern, and later in Zurich. After serving for a brief period in the army during the First World War, Goeldi moved to Geneva, where he was accepted at the École des Arts et Métiers. Frustrated with the academic environment, he abandoned the school in 1917 and began studying with artists Serge Pahnke and Henri van Muyden, and later with Hermann Kümmerly, with whom he learned lithography. After returning to Rio de Janeiro in 1919, he began a career of engraver and illustrator for popular magazines. Becoming attached to a group of vanguardist artists and intellectuals, such as Beatrix Reynal, Aníbal Machado, Otto Maria Carpeaux, Manuel Bandeira, Álvaro Moreyra, Ronald de Carvalho, Emiliano Di Cavalcanti and Rachel de Queiroz, he started working intensely as an artist. After being poorly received by the critics, he isolated himself in the city of Niterói where he supported himself as a well known illustrator for book editions and magazines. 

Goeldi's work impresses by the breadth and depth of the questions he presents. In the artist’s own words, "the phenomena of nature excite me – thunderstorms, windstorms, heavy clouds, sky and sea, sun and torrential rain and nights full of mystery, birds and bugs. The dramas of the human soul consume me. I feel good about the simple ones and sometimes I get confused with them."

Featured image: Oswaldo Goeldi - Untitled (Pescador e o Mar), n.d. (detail).Watercolor and quill pen on paper. 7 7/10 × 10 1/5 in. 19.5 × 26 cm. This is a unique work. Photo courtesy Bergamin & Gomide