, 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 travelled 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 creating 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. 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 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 in
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 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 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. 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. == Flag of Brazil ==