Negro com Chapéu, Fumando Charuto, Segurando Rédea de Cavalo

This portrait of a Black man wearing a hat, smoking a cigar, and holding a horse's bridle by van Emelen is one of the most compositionally complex works in his Ipiranga Museum series. The combination of hat, cigar, and bridle suggests a man of some standing — perhaps a livestock handler or stable worker — whose working identity is defined by these attributes. As with his other portraits, van Emelen's approach treats the sitter as an individual worthy of careful observation rather than reducing him to a social type.

The figure's combination of attributes — hat, cigar, bridle — creates a compact but rich compositional field. Van Emelen renders each element with equal observational care, and the sitter's pose carrying the bridle conveys the physical confidence of a person accustomed to handling animals.