Building a collection: the first collections of the National Museum of Fine Arts

...the Prince Regent Collection.

D. Afonso consultando o ermitão   integrates the set of works acquired in Brazil, by the Prince Regent and King D. João VI, between 1809 and 1821.

According to studies by researcher Anaildo Bernardo Baraçal, a collection from politician and merchant José Estêvão Grondona was also acquired by the Portuguese Crown, which will later become part of the collection. 

Lebreton brings a collection that in the future will become another nucleus of the MNBA collection.

This portrait of Joaquim Lebreton, from 1909, is a study for fresco, created by Henrique Bernardelli.

This portrait of the architect Grandjean de Montigny, member of the French Artistic Mission, is a study for fresco, and forms part of the facade of the building of the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, along with other portraits.

Learn more about the French artists led by Lebreton at: Missão Artística Francesa: coleção Museu Nacional de Belas Artes

The first artistic manifestations in our territory come from the original peoples, who are diverse and have different ways of expressing their culture through art, being deeply linked to their ways of being and understanding the world, that is, to their cosmologies.

Colonial artistic production, which officially eclipsed previous productions, was basically religious, the result of catechization imposed by the Jesuits who arrived here in the 16th century: sculptures of saints,

oratories,

church ceiling paintings, canvases representing biblical stories, etc.

Arts teaching at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts followed the basic precepts of classicism: art as a representation of the beautiful ideal, appreciation of certain themes, such as historical painting,

the importance of design,

the preference for certain techniques and materials, such as oil painting, marble and bronze for sculptures.

The Academy will strengthen during the reign of d. Pedro II, as the monarchy needed to create a strong image that would allow it to ensure the unity of the vast empire.

It represents the expulsion of the Dutch that took place in the 17th century, in Pernambuco. Historical paintings, extremely valued, were not committed to faithfully reproducing the facts, but rather to highlighting on canvas their epic character of national sovereignty.

Leôncio da Costa Vieira
(Rio de Janeiro, 1852 - Rio de Janeiro, 1881)

Estevão Silva 
(Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 1844 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 1891)

Antônio Firmino Monteiro 
(Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 1855 - Niterói, RJ 1888)

Francisco Manuel Chaves Pinheiro
(Rio de Janeiro, 1822 - Rio de Janeiro, 1884)

Find out more about these artists at : Entre a cátedra e o cativeiro

Rodolfo Bernardelli 
(Guadalajara, Mexico 1852 - Rio de Janeiro RJ 1931).

Sculptor and teacher.
He was the first director of the National School of Fine Arts between 1890 and 1915.

At the time of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, the artistic environment was essentially male, women were judged, in a pejorative way, always as “amateurs”.

Their access to artistic instruction was unequal in relation to men: they were unable to attend live model classes for moral reasons, a situation that only changed after 1893.

Julieta de França 
(Belém, PA, 1872 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 1951)

She studied at the National School of Fine Arts, being a disciple of Rodolfo Bernardelli in the sculpture class, which was unusual at the time.

Sculpture was understood as a masculine art, as it required physical strength to work with materials such as plaster, clay, marble and bronze.   

Nicolina Vaz de Assis Pinto do Couto 

(Campinas, SP, 1866 - Rio de Janeiro,RJ, 1941)

A sculptor, she studied at the National School of Fine Arts and perfected her skills in Europe. He won the gold medal at the National Salon of Fine Arts in 1908. 

She carried out numerous commissions for public and private sculptural works, receiving unusual professional recognition for women of her time.

Georgina de Albuquerque 
(Taubaté, SP, 1885 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 1962)
 

She was a professor of artistic drawing at the National School of Fine Arts and of decorative arts at the Institute of Arts of the University of the Federal District. In 1940 he created one of the first drawing and painting courses for children.

We can see, in this work by Artur Timóteo da Costa, how the environment of the School was essentially male. Georgina is the only female teacher portrayed. She served as director of the National School of Fine Arts between 1952 and 1954.

Angelina Agostini 
(Rio de Janeiro, 1888 - Idem, 1973) 

She won the prize for traveling to Europe with this painting, Vanity, and went to study in London in 1914, where she provided charitable services as a Red Cross volunteer. She exhibited in several places in London and Paris. Back in Brazil, she won a gold medal at the 1953.

The stories that the museum carries are part of the history of who we are today. Revisiting these stories with the eyes of the present is discovering who we are and why we are, to dream of who we want to be.