känˈdēthō pôrtēnäˈrē, 1903–62, Brazilian painter. He studied at the National School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro. In 1928 a European fellowship enabled him to visit France, Italy, Spain, and England. Upon his return he broke with his earlier somewhat academic style to paint scenes of Brazilian life, characteristically soft brown in tonality with small figures schematically represented by flecks of color and play of light. His painting Coffee (1935; National Museum of Fine Arts, Rio de Janeiro) revealed an interest in the expression of plastic form that became a dominant factor in his subsequent works. Portinari turned (c.1940) to a more fluid and expressionistic style, touched with surrealism, as in the series of frescoes in the Hispanic Foundation, and the Library of Congress and in paintings such as the Scarecrow (Mus. of Modern Art, New York City). In 1955 he executed two large murals of War and Peace for the United Nations General Assembly Building, New York City.

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