British Embassy, Rio de Janeiro

Location

Country: Brazil
City: Rio de Janeiro
Place: Consulate-General

Artfully framed by a tree in the foreground, Dimitri Ismailovitch’s view of the former British Embassy Residence at 360 Rua Sao Clemente in Rio de Janeiro, was painted in 1951, a year after the building was completed. Design and construction of the building began in 1944, the work of architect Robert R. Prentice and builders Companhia Construtora Pederneiras S.A. while Ambassador Sir Noel Charles’ was in post. 

On 22 March 1947, the foundation stone was laid by Lady Gainer, and she and the then Ambassador, Sir Donald Gainer took up residence in a temporary residence at Praia de Botafogo. The new building was formally inaugurated on 22 June 1950, with a reception and ball for 1700 guests. By that time, the serving Ambassador to Brazil was Sir Nevile Montagu Butler. However, within five years of occupying the new residence, it was announced that the capital of Brazil would relocate from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia. From the mid-1960s, diplomatic staff spent increasing periods of time in Brasilia  until eventually the Embassy moved there in 1972. The former residence was sold to the Mayor of Rio, in 1975. It serves today as the Mayor’s official residence and as the Palácio da Cidade.

Dimitri Ismailovitch was born in Sataniv, Ukraine, and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Ukraine (1918-19). He later travelled to Greece and Turkey, where he was drawn to classical Byzantine and Persian art. As co-leader of The Union of Russian Painters in Constantinople in the early 1920s, Ismailovitch organised several exhibitions of Russian art, and his own work featured in the First Russian Emigré Artists Exhibition in 1921. In 1927, he went to Athens, London, and the United States, where solo exhibitions of his work took place, before eventually settling in Brazil. Through his acquaintance with the writer Graça Aranha (1868-1931), he met many of the leading intellectuals and society names of the time, of whom he frequently painted portraits, images of which frequently featured in 'Vida Doméstica' and also painted religious subjects, architectural and landscape and still life. His triptych painting, 'Sodade do Cordâo' (1940) is in the collection of the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio. Ismailovitch became a naturalised Brazilian citizen in 1937.

In 1931, Ismailovitch participated in the Revolutionary Hall display at the National School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro; and he regularly exhibited at the city’s National Salon of Fine Arts. In 2013-14 an exhibition of his work was held at the Museu Villa Lobos in Rio. In addition to works by the artist held at the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio, his works are represented at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow; the Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge, USA; the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris; the Pinacoteca of the State of São Paulo, Brazil; and de Janeiro, Brazil. 

Places

South America, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro

Subjects

topography, landscape C20th, plant, tree, road, path, garden, lawn, embassy, house, balustrade, column, pillar (architectural feature), steps, terrace

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

Dimitri Ismailovitch (1892 - 1976)

Title

British Embassy, Rio de Janeiro

Date

1951

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 57.50 cm, width: 60.50 cm

Acquisition

Presented by Lady Butler, March 1976

Inscription

br: D. Ismailovitch 1951

Provenance

Presented by the artist to the British Ambassador to Brazil, Sir Neville Butler; presented to GAC (as DoE picture section) by Lady Butler 1976.

GAC number

12243