FirstSchoolsandAcademies

The history of the first institutions dedicated exclusively to Art in Rio de Janeiro is directly linked to the French group that arrives in 1816. In the same year it lands in the city, it secures the King's protection and arranges the founding of the establishment where they would teach in the New World: the Escola Real de Ciências, Artes e Ofícios (Royal School of Sciences, Arts and Crafts). With a decree published in August of that year, the School would be an institution in which the knowledge of art (expanded across different manual techniques) and of the natural sciences would coexist.

With pensions granted by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and War, the group led by Joachim Lebreton – whose various jobs in Paris included the administration of the Works of Art at the Louvre Museum – would be responsible for teaching at the new institution. The decree, however, was not immediately implemented, causing the courses to have small classes and poor conditions.

Image description: This is a painting depicting a seated man. The figure occupies most of the image, with a neutral, monochromatic background. The individual is wearing a dark suit with a white shirt and a red and black striped tie. He is leaning on a wooden bench with brown-colored details.

On November 23, 1820, the former School was renamed twice (according to some sources, on the same day): in the first version, it was called the Royal Academy of Drawing, Painting, Sculpture and Civil Architecture. Dispensing with the natural sciences and the initial French ambition, this proposal did not hold up, and soon another statute defined the foundations of the Academy of Arts. In this third version, the classes in sculpture, drawing, painting, and engraving were joined by those in architecture and mechanics, botany, and chemistry.

With the passage of time, some of the original names from the 1816 project are replaced due to disagreements among its members or even deaths – as was the case with one of the masterminds behind the whole idea, Lebreton himself, in 1819. Other names remain in the plans for teaching arts at court, such as Debret, Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, Grandjean de Montigny, and Ovide. Among those who were not in the first group that arrived in January, new teachers came, such as the brothers Marc and Zépherine Ferrez (sculptors, engravers, draftsmen). Despite this new attempt, the Academy in this format also fails to get off the ground, and its official operation is postponed.

At the time when the French were in Rio de Janeiro, the political developments of the Napoleonic conflicts with Portugal and the restoration of the Bourbons in France turned the artists' presence into a possible political problem. In addition, Dom João VI found himself in the midst of power struggles in Portugal and Brazil. The colony, for example, was at the epicenter of the Brazilian independence movements.

In this context, it was only on November 5, 1826, ten years after the arrival of the mission conceived by the Conde da Barca (who died back in 1817) and by Lebreton, and after Brazil's independence, that the school, now named Academia Imperial das Belas Artes, was inaugurated with pomp and circumstance in the presence of Emperor Dom Pedro I. It then began operating permanently in a new and definitive building originally designed by Grandjean de Montigny.

Image description: The image is a black-and-white photograph of an old building with classical architecture. From left to right, we see a column with a statue beside it. In the center, there is a balcony with two side columns and a statue in the middle. On the right, there is another column with a statue beside it. The building has large windows and a main entrance with a prominently featured statue. At the top, there is a pediment with ornamental details.

After its official inauguration, the former Escola Real de Ciência, Artes e Ofícios began operating as an establishment that spread artistic practices in Rio de Janeiro, including being an important space for its talented common people. The Academy became home to names that would become important in the cultural and artistic scene of the Second Reign, such as Manuel de Araújo Porto-Alegre, who would go on to be one of its future directors, Pedro Américo, Victor Meirelles, Almeida Junior, and Rodolfo Bernardelli. It was also at the Academy that the country's first public art exhibitions were held (on Debret's initiative and with the help of his student, Porto-Alegre), in 1829, with an even greater public success in the second edition, the very next year.

Image description: This is a painting depicting the "Coronation of D. Pedro II as Emperor of Brazil." The image shows a grand ceremony in a palace or temple, with columns and classical architecture. In the central part, a man is being consecrated, wearing ceremonial garments. To his right, another individual, possibly a priest, performs the ceremony. To the left, a crowd of people watches the ceremony. In the background, two women look out through a window. The predominant colors are shades of yellow, brown, and gold, giving the scene a festive tone.

Spanning the 19th century in direct connection with the Empire and the philanthropic figure of Dom Pedro II, the advent of the Republic in 1889 accelerated a series of impasses regarding the curricular structure that the Imperial Academy still upheld. Transformations in the international and Brazilian artistic scene put pressure on the foundations laid back in 1816 by Lebreton and called for a reformulation. After clashes between different political groups over the institution's fate, the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes was born on November 8, 1890, an institution that operated until it was absorbed by the Universidade do Rio de Janeiro (former UFRJ) in 1931.