Typos urbanos: João Affonso and street characters of northern Brazil in the nineteenth century

Abstract

Abstract The artist and journalist João Affonso (1855–1924) published in his early career drawings of characters, or ‘street types’, from the city of São Luís in the magazine A Flecha (1880–1881), and from the city of Belém in the magazine A Vida Paraense (1883–1884). These sets of characters, especially the women, were presented later in his book Três Séculos de Modas/Three Centuries of Fashion in 1923, considered one of the first studies of fashion history undertaken in Brazil. These types and their way of dressing show us the traits, diversity and contradictions of the Brazilian population and its relationship with European fashion.