Jean-Baptiste Debret

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Jean-Baptiste Debret
Rodolfo Amoedo - Retrato do pintor Jean-Baptiste Debret.jpg
Copy by Rodolfo Amoedo of an 1836 portrait by Manuel Porto-Alegre
Background information
Field: Painting, Drawing
Movement: Neoclassicism
Birthdate: Apr 18, 1768
Location: Paris, Kingdom of France
Date of death: Jul 28, 1848 - age  79
Death place: Paris, French Second Republic
Alma Mater: Académie des Beaux-Arts
Awards: Prix de Rome
Member of the Academie des Beaux Arts.
Nationality: French

Jean-Baptiste Debret (1768-1848) was a French painter who became known for his lithographs depicting the people of Brazil. He took a particular interest in slavery of blacks and Brazil's indigenous peoples.

Debret won the second prize at the 1798 Salon des Beaux Arts. Among his artwork are some works depicting corporal punishment.

Biography

First remittance of the Légion d'Honneur, 15 July 1804, at Saint-Louis des Invalides, by Jean-Baptiste Debret, 1812 Debret studied at the French Academy of Fine Arts, a pupil of the great Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825) to whom he was related. He accompanied David to Rome in the 1780s. His debut was at the Salon des Beaux Arts of 1798, where he got the second prize.

He traveled to Brazil in March 1816 as a member of the so-called French Artistic Mission, a group of Bonapartist French artists and artisans bound to create an arts and crafts lyceum in Rio de Janeiro (Escola Real de Artes e Ofícios) under the auspices of King D. João VI and the Count of Barca. The lyceum later became the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes (Imperial Academy of Fine Arts) under Emperor Dom Pedro I.

Debret, A Guaraní family captured by slave hunters

As a painter favored first by the Portuguese court in exile and later by the imperial court in Rio, Debret was often commissioned to paint portraits of many of its members, such as Portuguese king Dom João VI and the Archduchess 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 his atelier at the Imperial Academy in December 1822 and became a valued teacher in 1826. In 1829 Debret organized the first art exhibition ever to take place in Brazil, in which he presented many of his works and those of his disciples. Emulating David's role during the French Empire, Debret was also involved in drawing ornaments for many public ceremonies and official festivities of the court. Even some of the courtier's uniforms are credited to him.

He frequently corresponded 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 in the slavery of blacks and in the indigenous peoples in Brazil. Together with the German painter Johann Moritz Rugendas (1802–1858), his work is one of the most essential 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 the Academie des Beaux Arts. From 1834 to 1839, he published his monumental series of three volumes of engravings, titled Voyage 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. To survive, he made lithographs depicting paintings by his distant cousin David, but the editions were minimal, and money was short. Debret died poor in Paris in 1848.

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Wikipedia article: Jean-Baptiste Debret
Wikilogo-35.png This page may use content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Jean-Baptiste Debret. The list of authors can be seen in the page history.
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