Rua Direita, Rio de Janeiro

The French Félix Emile Taunay arrived in Brazil in 1816 along with other members of the French Artistic Mission -- a group that came to the country with the purpose of founding a school for academic teaching of art, the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. In Rio de Janeiro, he portrayed mainly in drawings and watercolors the landscapes and architecture of the city. The artist's two watercolors belonging to Pinacoteca were created in the first decade of his life in Rio, depicting everyday scenes of traffic and work. In them, one can perceive the coexistence of free and enslaved men. Taunay's trajectory was always linked to AIBA: he replaced his father, Nicolas Antoine Taunay, in the discipline of painting when he decided to return to France in 1921. In 1934, he became the director of the Institution, and its management is pointed out by historians as being responsible for the effective consolidation of artistic education in the country. Between 2015 and 2016, his work was one of the highlights of the show “Paisagem das Américas: pinturas da terra do fogo ao Ártico”, which was held at Pinacoteca, the Crystal Bridges Museum in the United States and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada.