Brazilian School, 19th Century


Capriccio views of Rio de Janeiro, a pairoil on canvas 63 x 96.5cm (24 13/16 x 38in). (2)
|This pair shows capriccio views of the port of Rio de Janeiro bustling with activity. There are merchant ships and smaller boats anchored at shore with local people animating the scene; women and men carrying food and goods on their heads and working on boats. The church on the left in the first image looks to be Santa Lucia and in the background one can see the city surrounded by the mountains. The second image shows resemblance to Sao Goncalo with its mountains in the background. These street scenes show the clear influence of both Debret and Rugendas. Debret was a French painter who travelled to Brazil in 1816 as a member of the so-called French Artistic Mission, a group of bonapartist French artists and artisans bound to creating an arts and crafts lyceum in Rio de Janeiro under King D. João VI and the Conde da Barca; this later became the Academia Imperial de Bellas Artes under Emperor Dom Pedro I.Debret is known for his depictions of everyday life in Brazil and started to sketch street scenes, local costumes and people between 1816 and 1831. He was particularly interested in slavery of black and indigenous people in Brazil. Together with the German painter Johann Moritz Rugendas, his work is some of the most important documentation of Brazilian life during the early decades of nineteenth century. This pair of paintings executed at a later date, around 1880, show the influence of prints after both of these important artists' work.