Jean-Baptiste Debret
Jean-Baptiste Debret | |
|---|---|
 Copy byRodolfo Amoedoof an 1836 portrait byManuel Porto-Alegre | |
| Born | 18 April 1768 |
| Died | 28 July 1848(aged 80) Paris,French Second Republic |
| Nationality | French |
| Alma mater | Académie des Beaux-Arts |
| Known for | Painting,Drawing |
| Movement | Neoclassicism |
| Awards | Prix de Rome Member of the Academie des Beaux Arts. |
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Jean-Baptiste Debret(French pronunciation:[ʒɑ̃batistdəbʁɛ];18 April 1768 – 28 June 1848) was a Frenchpainter,who produced many valuablelithographsdepicting the people ofBrazil.Debret won the second prize at the 1798Salon des Beaux Arts.[1]
Biography[edit]
Debret studied at theFrench Academy of Fine Arts,a pupil of the greatJacques-Louis David(1748–1825) to whom he was related. He accompanied David to Rome in the 1780s. His debut was at theSalon des Beaux Artsof 1798, where he got the second prize.[1]
He travelled to Brazil in March 1816 as a member of the so-calledFrench Artistic Mission,a group ofbonapartistFrench artists and artisans bound to creating an arts and craftslyceuminRio de Janeiro(Escola Real de Artes e Ofícios) under the auspices ofKing D. João VIand theCount of Barca.The lyceum later became theAcademia Imperial de Belas Artes(Imperial Academy of Fine Arts) under EmperorDom Pedro I.
As a painter favored first by the Portuguese court in exile and later by theimperial courtin Rio, Debret was often commissioned to paintportraitsof many of its members, such as Portuguese kingDom João VIand theArchduchess Maria Leopoldina of Austria,the first empress of Brazil, who married D. Pedro I (Debret was commissioned to produce a painting of her arrival for the marriage at the Rio port, as well as the public acclaiming of the new Emperor). He established hisatelierat the Imperial Academy in December 1822 and became a valuedteacherin 1826. In 1829 Debret organized the first arts exhibition ever to take place in Brazil, in which he presented many of his works as well as of his disciples. Emulating David's role during the French Empire, Debret was also involved in the drawing ornaments for many of public ceremonies and official festivities of the court and even some of the courtier's uniforms are credited to him.
He corresponded frequently with his brother in Paris. After noticing his brother's interest in his depiction of everyday life in Brazil, he started to sketch street scenes, local costumes and relations of the Brazilians in the period between 1816 and 1831. He took a particular interest inslaveryof blacks and in theindigenous peoples in Brazil.Together with the German painterJohann Moritz Rugendas(1802–1858), his work is one of the most important graphic documentation of life in Brazil during the early decades of the 19th century.
Debret returned to France in 1831 and became a member of theAcademie des Beaux Arts.From 1834 to 1839 he published his monumental series of three volumes of engravings, titledVoyage Pittoresque et Historique au Brésil, ou Séjour d'un Artiste Français au Brésil( "A Picturesque and Historic Voyage to Brazil, or the Sojourn of a French Artist in Brazil" ). Unfortunately the work was not a commercial success. In order to survive, he made lithographs depicting paintings by his distant cousin David, but the editions were very limited and money was short. Debret died poor in Paris in 1848.
Gallery[edit]
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Uruncungo Player -
“L’exécution de la Punition du Fouet” ( “Execution of the Punishment of the Whip” ) -
Family dining -
“Feitors corrigeant des nègres” ( “Plantation overseers disciplining blacks” ) -
Black women (1835) -
Charrúawarrior
References[edit]
- ^abAraujo, Ana Lucia (2015).Brazil Through French Eyes: A Nineteenth-Century Artist in the Tropics.UNM Press. p. 45.ISBN978-0826337467.
External links[edit]
- Facsimile of the 3 books(color, black& white) and scans of 250 lithographs
- DezenoveVinte - Arte Brasileira do século XIX e início do XX(in Portuguese)
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