French Artistic Mission: collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts

Debret was a faithful chronicler of the times of D. João VI and D. Pedro I.

His painting is vibrant and never monotonous.

Architecture was for many years an area of study in the field of fine arts, and it was within this context that the teaching arrived in Brazil.

Grandjean de Montigny
First official professor of architecture in Brazil, he arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1816, a member of the French Artistic Mission. His formation took place in the School of Fine Arts of Paris, under the direction of Delannoy, Percier and Fontaine. In 1799, he was awarded with the Great Prize of Rome.

Detail with the inscription: Medaille d'or remportée a l'exposition du Salon De MDCCCVIII

Taking advantage of his stay in Italy, he made several trips around the country. He returned to Paris in 1808 and participated in competitions opened by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1810, invited by Jerônimo Bonaparte, king of the Westphalia, created works in Cassel. In Brazil, where he died, he made several works in neoclassical style, giving the architecture of Rio de Janeiro a new artistic conception.

They have a neoclassical treatment, especially in the eyes, hair and in the distribution of the volumes.

But it is possible to perceive in the treatment of the musculature of the face and in some details of the physiognomy a freedom that Marc Ferrez brought of his admiration by the Roman realism.

It is noted in detail of the dress,

In the perfection in the construction of the hair and the beard the careful and skilled hand of a engraver.

One of the main legacies left by Debret, Marc Ferrez and Grandjean de Montigny was the formation of painters, sculptors and architects who have continued, both in the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts and in their professional careers, the activity of their supervisors, consolidating the Art Academic teaching and providing the professionalization of countless generations of artists who succeeded them until the final years of the nineteenth century.

Correia de Lima
He was one of the typical influencers in Brazil of the knowledge absorbed from the French masters. As titular, from 1840, of the chair of Historical Painting of the Academy. The work of Correia de Lima that was most notable was the famous portrait of Simon,

Reproducing the features of the sailor hero of the shipwreck happened in 1853, on the coast of Santa Catarina. In the middle of the slavery period, a black man is represented with dignity, no longer a secondary character.

Maestro Francisco Manuel dictating the National Anthem to his stepdaughters

A rare image of the author of the Brazilian national anthem

Such as the representation of caves

And beautiful landscaping trials such as -Floresta Brasileira

August Muller, born in 1815, German based in Rio de Janeiro, is the author of the portrait of Luisa Francisca Panasco

wife of Grandjean de Montigny.

Francisco Manuel Chaves Pinheiro
He began his studies with Marc Ferrez at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. In 1850, he entered the magisterium, being named Substitute of the Sculpture Chair, where, two years later, became titular. His style was strongly influenced by neoclassicism processed by the members of the French Artistic Mission.

He remained a professor of Academy of Sculpture until 1884, the year of his death.
D. Pedro II greatly aided Chaves Pinheiro, not only providing resources for the accomplishment of artistic works, but also sending him to Europe in 1867 to observe, as a member of the Brazilian Mission, the Universal Exhibition of Paris. On this occasion, the sculptor was given the task of reporting the situation of the museums of the main European cities.

José da Silva Santos, in his work as a sculptor, replaced - in 1851 - the great Zépherin Ferrez in the chair of Engraving Medals of the Academy.

Félix Émile Taunay and Simplício Rodrigues de Sá, older than the artists previously presented, but because they are almost contemporaneous, for having similar formations and stylistic affinities, besides having lived in the Imperial Academy, were included in this exhibition. In the same vein, a project by José Rodrigues Moreira is presented, which, although not part of the first generation of students of Grandjean de Montigny, was strongly influenced by the great French architect.

Félix Émile Taunay
Although he is not really a companion to the artists who were part of the first generation of students, Felix Émile can be considered almost a contemporary. He was director of the Imperial Academy and during his stay in the role was created in 1840 the General Exhibitions of Fine Arts, as well as the granting, from 1845, of travel prizes abroad. Felix Taunay, born in 1795, was French, son of Nicolas Taunay,

He left pictures

And a landscape work of great interest, in which shows an ecological concern.

Simplício Rodrigues de Sá
Born in Portugal in 1785, he was primarily an excellent portraitist.

José Rodrigues Moreira
Student of Architecture course of the Imperial Academy, having received Honorable Mention (1850), Great Gold Medal (1852) and Prize of Travel (1862) in the General Exhibitions of Fine Arts.