Representations of Modern Brazil to read, to see and to hear in the circuit of the European Museums Trade, from 1906 to 1908

The article focuses the visual culture role in the construction of Brazilian national identity during the first period of the Republican age. It analyzes the publicity practices of Brazilian elites aimed at replacing the image of a picturesque Brazil, widespread within and outside the country since the XIXth century, with a new image, more akin to the signs of a modern, cosmopolitan society. It emphasizes the production and circulation of symbolic goods issued by Museu Commercial of Rio de Janeiro and Brazilian Museu Commercial in Paris, in partnership with Brazilian Service of Foreign Propaganda and Economic Expansion, just before the 1908 National Exhibition held to celebrate the centenary of the Portuguese Court’s arrival to Brazil.

Visual Culture; Circulation of Symbolic Goods; National Identity