20 Essential Works by Angelo Agostini – Ranked
Angelo Agostini worked across newspapers, illustrated magazines and sequential stories during a period of major political and social change in Brazil. He drew war, elections, slavery, the monarchy, art and life in Rio de Janeiro, while also creating some of the earliest recurring characters in Brazilian comics. These twenty works follow different parts of that career.
O Brasil, terra de Santa Cruz
Agostini was born in Vercelli, Italy, in 1843. He reached Brazil while still young and began his professional career in São Paulo before moving to Rio de Janeiro.
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Aos Heroes da Passagem de Humaitá
Before founding his own magazine, Agostini worked for several illustrated publications. The Paraguayan War was among the major public events covered during his years at A Vida Fluminense.
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The page was published in A Vida Fluminense, year 1, no. 10, on 7 March 1868.
Public-domain image record ↗Ligeiros croquis sobre os acontecimentos dos primeiros dias do anno 1880 na Corte
A new tax on horse-drawn tram fares brought crowds into the streets of Rio at the beginning of 1880. Agostini recorded the disturbances as a sequence of small scenes rather than a single emblematic cartoon.
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Museu Imperial records issue 189 of Revista Illustrada on 7 January 1880 and notes that it contains images and texts on the Revolta do Vintém.
Museu Imperial ↗Public-domain image record ↗
Revista Illustrada, no. 265
Agostini had founded Revista Illustrada in 1876. By the early 1880s it was his main platform for reporting, caricature and political argument.
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Revista Illustrada, no. 308
Pedro II became a regular figure in Agostini’s political drawings. The emperor was shown not as an untouchable symbol but as a recurring character whose behaviour readers were expected to recognise.
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Revista Illustrada, no. 342
The magazine moved easily between politics and visual storytelling. During the same period Agostini was also developing Zé Caipora, one of the recurring characters associated with his comics work.
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Carnaval
Politics did not fill every page. Carnival, exhibitions and daily life in Rio gave Agostini material for observation and social comedy.
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The image record identifies the work as Carnaval, published in Revista Illustrada, year 9, no. 373, pages 4–5.
Public-domain image record ↗A Carioca
Alongside politics, Revista Illustrada regularly covered exhibitions, artists and life in Rio. Agostini’s work was not confined to parliamentary caricature.
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O Coveiro dos Sexagenários
The Sexagenarians Law promised freedom to enslaved people over sixty, but abolitionists attacked the measure as too limited and too slow. Agostini was among those who treated gradual reform with open distrust.
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A Grande Degringolada
By 1885 the struggle over slavery was tied closely to the wider crisis of imperial politics. Agostini repeatedly presented delay and political manoeuvring as signs that the existing order was failing.
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Academic research identifies the work as A Grande Degringolada, Revista Illustrada, no. 415, July 1885.
Almanack / SciELO ↗Public-domain image record ↗
Revista Illustrada, no. 429 — Quintino Bocaiúva and Yellow Fever
Public health also entered the magazine’s political argument. On this cover, journalist Quintino Bocaiúva paints a bleak image of Brazil while public authorities look on.
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The issue 429 cover refers to yellow fever, slavery and the failure of public authorities to respond.
Public-domain image record ↗A inauguração da Avenida Central — No comboio presidencial
Agostini continued drawing long after the fall of the empire. In the early twentieth century he returned to urban politics as Rio was being rebuilt on a large scale.
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Published in O Malho, no. 104, on 10 September 1904.
Public-domain image record ↗Estado da Questão Militar
The dispute between army officers and the imperial government became another pressure point for the monarchy. Agostini presents the conflict as a standoff in which neither side intends to give way.
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Published in Revista Illustrada, year 12, no. 457, on 14 May 1887.
Public-domain image record ↗Pedro II — Revista Illustrada, no. 450
Pedro II appears surrounded by newspapers, apparently asleep while political events continue around him. By this point the ageing emperor had become a familiar target in the magazine.
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Revista Illustrada — 29 July 1888
Slavery had been abolished little more than two months earlier. The magazine that had campaigned against it now addressed the political aftermath and the new public image of Princess Isabel.
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As Aventuras de Zé Caipora
Zé Caipora became one of Agostini’s recurring adventure characters. These pages relied on sequences rather than a single punch line, placing them in a different tradition from his political caricatures.
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O Coveiro dos Sexagenários
The Sexagenarians Law became a target for abolitionists who believed it postponed freedom rather than ending slavery. Agostini’s response was direct enough to make the political argument clear without much explanation.
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Scenas da escravidão patrocinadas pelo partido da Ordem
Here the violence of slavery is placed beside the language of political order and the reign of Pedro II. The page belongs to the period when abolition had become one of the magazine’s central campaigns.
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Francisco Nascimento — Dragão do Mar
Francisco José do Nascimento became a national abolitionist figure after Ceará’s jangadeiros refused to transport enslaved people for sale to other provinces. Agostini placed his portrait above a maritime scene and brought the story to readers in Rio.
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The cover appeared in Revista Illustrada, no. 376, on 12 April 1884.
Public-domain image record ↗As Aventuras de Nhô-Quim ou Impressões de uma Viagem à Corte
Nhô-Quim arrives from the countryside and encounters Rio de Janeiro as an outsider. Agostini used the journey to connect one scene to the next while making jokes about transport, fashion and urban life. The series began on 30 January 1869.
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The series began in A Vida Fluminense on 30 January 1869. The surviving scan used here measures 1,500 × 1,156 pixels.
Biblioteca Nacional ↗Public-domain image record ↗
