![Tarsila do Amaral. _Composição (Figura só) (Composition [Lonely Figure])_, 1930. Oil on canvas, 32 11/16 x 50 13/16 in. (83 x 129 cm). São Fernando Institute Collection, Rio de Janeiro.](/d/assets/W1siZiIsIjIwMTgvMDIvMDEvN2hoaGZnd3gydV9Db21wb3NpdGlvbl9Mb25lbHlfRmlndXJlX0NvbXBvc2ljX2Ffb19GaWd1cmFfc29fLmpwZyJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcXVhbGl0eSA5MCAtcmVzaXplIDIwMDB4MjAwMFx1MDAzZSJdXQ/Composition%20%28Lonely%20Figure%29%20%28Composic%CC%A7a%CC%83o%20%28Figura%20so%CC%81%29.jpg?sha=8068efee3d8f13f2)
Curator, Luis Perez-Oramas: Lonely Figure was the only painting made by Tarsila in 1930. After the economic crash of 1929, which brought to an end the coffee plantation economy, after the end of her marriage with Oswald de Andrade, Tarsila was alone. Lonely Figure is almost a self-portrait of that moment. She's alone, she dreams, and she looks at the future in this infinite landscape.
The shapes in the painting seem almost like abstract sculptures. It’s as if Tarsila wanted to see how much she could reduce her forms and still let us recognize them as a figure and trees. Like so many of her paintings, this one reflects her interest in reducing images down to their clearest essence.