Portraits within death: the Série Trágica by Flávio de Carvalho

Abstract

In April, 19th, 1947, Flávio de Carvalho was in the Farm Capuava, in Valinhos, and received an urgent call to go to São Paulo. His mother, Ophélia Crissiúma de Carvalho, who suffered from a very painful cancer, was agonizing in her home, lying in bed. Seeing his mother’s agony, Flávio, her only son, grabbed pen and paper and begun to record her last instants in life. In the beginning of the afternoon, she finally died. The sketches the artist held became nine drawings of coal on paper, known as A Série Trágica – Minha mãe morrendo (The Tragic Series – My Mother Dying). The present essay intends to examine how a narrative is constituted by means of the nine drawings, and what such a narrative calls into play.