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 :. | Emperor s speech | Joan of Arc listening for the first time to the voices that predict her prominent fate | Lion | Peace and Concord | David and Abishag |
Related Artists:
Jean-Baptiste marie pierre
French Painter , b. 1713, Paris, d. 1789, Paris
George Brandriff
1890-1936
robert john thornton
Robert John Thornton (1768-1837) was an English physician and botanical writer, noted for "A New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus Von Linnæus" (1797-1807) and "The British Flora" of 1812. He was the son of Bonnell Thornton and studied at Trinity College, Cambridge. Inspired by Thomas Martyn's lectures on botany and the work of Linnaeus he switched from the church to medicine. He worked at Guy's Hospital in London, where he later lectured in medical botany. After spending some time abroad, he settled and practised in London. Robert inherited the family fortune after the death of both his brother and mother. The most ambitious part of the "New Illustration of the Sexual System of Linnæus" was Part III, the "Temple of Flora" (1799-1807). The first plates were engraved by Thomas Medland (1755-1833) in May 1798 from paintings by Philip Reinagle. Between 1798 and 1807 they produced a total of thirty-three coloured plates, engraved in aquatint, stipple and line. When he planned the project, Thornton had decided to publish seventy folio-size plates. Lack of interest from the general public spelled disaster for the scheme, and the holding of a lottery could not save it from financial ruin, neither did a page in the work dedicated to the spouse of George III, Queen Charlotte, patroness of botany and the fine arts??Thornton died in destitution.