Logo: O Caderno de Aimé-Adrien Taunay - Histórias, descobertas e percursos
courtesy of: Logo: IHF - Instituto Hercules Florence
special thanks to: Logo: Museu Paulista
Logo: O Caderno de Aimé-Adrien Taunay - Histórias, descobertas e percursos

THE NOTEBOOK

Food

Among the information recorded in Aimé Adrien Taunay’s notebook, the food consumed during his journey draws attention. The writings on the diary actually begin with a dinner gathering at the house of the Count of Gestas, and throughout the narrative, the traveler renders a special place for the subject of food. The region he traveled consisted of small and medium sized properties, small rural estates that produced for subsistence purposes, and to the supply of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Taunay also observed coffee and sugar cane plantations along the way.

Besides the foreign market, such products and their derivatives –cachaça, spirit and sugar– were consumed by the people of the region, as can be seen in the passage where he took “a cup of coffee with milk and rolls”.

Other agricultural products cultivated in those parts and annotated by the traveler were alfalfa, rice, banana and orange. In addition, the diet relied on food obtained from hunting: woodpeckers, jacutinga birds, partridges, parrots, deer, scabbards and armadillos. Upon arriving in Nova Friburgo, the artist was entertained mainly by French-speaking Swiss settlers, who offered him dishes typical of the Swiss culinary tradition but prepared with local products such as fresh cheese with cornmeal, banana cake, fresh butter on corn bread and pancakes.

This image is a painting. Title: Dryocopus Lineatus Lennaeus (Red-headed woodpecker), 1766. Artist: Aimé-Adrien Taunay. Medium and support: Watercolor on paper. The painting features the head of a woodpecker in shades of black, yellow and red in the support’s upper part. There is an inscription with the number ninety-four in the upper right. There is an inscription indicating the location where the watercolor was painted in the lower left corner and the artist’s signature is in the lower right.
TAUNAY, Aimé-Adrien. [Pica-pau de cabeça vermelha], 1826. Watercolor on paper. Collection of the Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg).
The image is a painting. Title: Vannelus chilensis Molina (Southern Lapwing), 1782. Artist: Aimé-Adrien Taunay. Medium and support: Watercolor on paper. The painting features the head, paw and wing of the Southern Lapwing bird, side by side, in tons of gray, yellow and red. There is the number one hundred and sixty-five in the upper right and an inscription in French on the bottom.
TAUNAY, Aimé-Adrien. [Quero-quero]. 1826. Watercolor on paper. Collection of the Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg).
This image is a painting. Title: Didelphis albiventris Lund (White-eared opossum), 1840. Artist: Aimé-Adrien Taunay. Medium and support: Watercolor on paper. The image features a possum in shades of black and white over its own shadow. The rodent keeps its tail curled while looking at the viewer. Number one hundred and eleven is in the upper right corner. There is also an inscription indicating where and when the watercolor was painted in the lower left corner and the author's signature in the lower right corner.
TAUNAY, Aimé-Adrien. [Gambé, saruê, sariguê]. 1826. Aquarela sobre papel. Arquivos da Academia de Ciências (São Petersburgo).
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