de Figueiredo e Melo (Areia, Brazil, 29 April 1843 - Florence, Italy, 7 October 1905) was one of the most important academic painters of Brazil. He was also a writer and a teacher. He moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1854, where he was granted a scholarship to study in the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes (Imperial Academy of Fine Arts). Later he furthered his studies in Europe, at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, being a pupil of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Hippolyte Flandrin and Carle-Horace Vernet, winning much praise for his paintings, and achieving the Doctorate in Sciences at the University of Brussels, in 1868. Returning to Brazil, he produced a great series of masterpieces, including one of the most well known works of art in Brazil: Independence or Death!, depicting the moment when Prince Peter declared the country independent from Portugal, a work that has illustrated History books for elementary schools in Brazil for decades. Living mostly in Florence, Italy but traveling extensively back and forth from Rio de Janeiro, Pedro Am??rico managed to work also as a lecturer and an art historian. He married Carlota de Ara??jo Porto-alegre (1844?C1918), daughter of painter and diplomat Manuel de Ara??jo Porto-alegre, and they had children. Knighted by the German Crown he was also Great Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. With the proclamation of the Republic in Brazil in 1889, he was elected a deputy of the National Assembly.   Related Paintings of Pedro Americo :. | The Emperor's speech | Quartered Tiradentes | Emperor s speech | Venus | Justice |
Related Artists:
Barend van Orley
Brussels ca 1488-1541
Georg Andreas Hoffmann
1752 -1808
Joseph-Benoit Suvee
(3 January 1743 - 9 February 1807) was a Flemish painter strongly influenced by French neo-classicism. He was born in Bruges. Initially a pupil of Matthias de Visch, he came to France aged 19 and became a pupil of Jean-Jacques Bachelier. In 1771, he won the Prix de Rome. In Rome from 1772 to 1778, he prolonged the usual duration allowed to pensionaries of the French Academy in Rome. He was named an academician on his return to Paris and he opened an art school for young women at the Louvre. He emulated and competed with Jacques-Louis David, earning his enduring hatred. Named the French Academy in Rome's director in 1792, replacing François-Guillaume Menageot, he was imprisoned for a while in the Prison Saint-Lazare and only able to take up the post in 1801. After a brilliant career, and a six years' stay in Rome as the Academy's Director, he died there suddenly. His works include Achilles depositing the body of Hector at the feet of the body of Patroclus, (1769, Louvre), and Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, (1795, Louvre).