(b Paris, 18 April 1768; d Paris, 28 June 1848). French painter and draughtsman, active in Brazil. When very young he accompanied his cousin, Jacques-Louis David, on a trip to Italy from which he returned in 1785. He then enrolled in the Acad?mie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris, initially following parallel studies in civil engineering but soon devoting himself to painting. Between 1798 and 1814 he entered several of the annual Paris Salons with historical or allegorical paintings, Neo-classical in both spirit and form, for instance Napoleon Decorating a Russian Soldier at Tilsit (1808; Versailles, Ch?teau). He also collaborated at this time with the architects Charles Percier and Pierre-Fran?ois Fontaine on decorative works. With the fall of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte I, whom he greatly admired, he agreed to take part in the French artistic mission which left for Brazil in 1816. He stayed there longer than the rest of the group, returning to France only in 1831. During those years spent in Rio de Janeiro and in neighbouring provinces, he was in the vanguard of local artistic life, still in its infancy. He founded and encouraged the Academia Imperial das Belas Artes, of which he became professor of history painting. He painted many historical works such, as the Acclamation of Peter I (1822; Rio de Janeiro, Mus. N. B.A.). He and two other members of the French mission, the architect Auguste-Henri Grandjean de Montigny and the sculptor Auguste-Marie Taunay (1768-1824), were responsible for preparing the decorations in Rio de Janeiro for the celebrations in 1818 acclaiming John VI as King.
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