The collective exhibition is born from the emblematic work of Almeida Junior (Itu, May 8, 1850 — Piracicaba, November 13, 1899), Redneck smoking tobacco (1893), to rethink the imaginary surrounding the identity of this social type constructed to designate the interior São Paulo native.

The figure of the caipira emerges from the political project of a cultural elite committed to the modernization of São Paulo and the construction of a prominent place for the state in relation to the other units of the federation.

The alignment with modern international art trends in the 19th century, realism and naturalism, makes the caipira the São Paulo version of the rural workers, at the time considered the founding social type of national cultures in several countries.

The first exhibition room goes through the construction of this character (Country bumpkin), the representation of the rural environment and the tasks that characterize them.

In the second gallery, works are gathered that seek to present the background of the country bumpkin, which can be understood as a synthesis of other images produced throughout the 19th century, including bandeirantes, mestizos and caboclos. Parallel to these figures, some landscapes portray the destruction of forests since 1830, dealing with the human relationship with the environment.

The paintings represent the mixed-race man's knowledge of the land, whether to find his way along its paths or to explore its resources. The Brazilian overthrower (1879), by Almeida Júnior, is an important allegory that highlights the relationship with these landscapes by showing a man endowed with a relationship with the land, coming from his indigenous blood, and from Portuguese industrialism. Works such as Bandeirantes and India (prologue) (1882) and Drying a forest [clearing of a forest] (between 1827 and 2835).

The last room focuses on the representation of the cultural system in which the figure of the caipira is inserted, a realistic concern of modern painters, such as Almeida Júnior. It is in this room that the Saudade (1899), one of Almeida Júnior's most emblematic works. In the painting, a country girl moves us as she cries over a photograph, which brings back a memory.