Pôrto Alegre, Manuel Araújo (1806–1879)

Manuel Araújo Pôrto Alegre (b. 29 November 1806; d. 29 December 1879), Brazilian painter, poet, and playwright. In 1827, soon after arriving in Rio de Janeiro from his home province of Rio Pardo, Pôrto Alegre enrolled in the Brazilian Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. He studied under the French history painter Jean-Baptiste Debret, who had come to Brazil in 1816 as part of the French artistic mission. After studying painting in Paris for five years, Pôrto Alegre returned to Rio de Janeiro, where he was appointed the academy's professor of history painting.

In 1840, the year of Pedro II's acclamation, Pôrto Alegre was named official court painter and produced court portraits and canvases depicting important imperial events. In 1854 Pôrto Alegre was appointed the academy's fifth—and first Brazilian-born—director. That same year, as part of Pedro II's program to encourage nationalism and overhaul imperial cultural and economic institutions, the emperor asked his new director to carry out a thorough reform of the academy. But in 1857, with a new organizational structure in place, Pôrto Alegre resigned. He blamed irreconcilable differences with the academic faculty and imperial ministers. He spent the last years of his life as a foreign diplomat.

In addition to his artistic contributions, Pôrto Alegre was also a celebrated poet, journalist, and playwright. His most important literary work was a poem about the discovery of America, entitled Columbo. Emperor Pedro II conferred on him the title of barão in 1874.

See alsoArt: The Nineteenth Century; Literature: Brazil; Pedro II of Brazil.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dioclécio De Paranhos Antunes, O pintor do romantismo: Vida e obra de Manoel de Araujo Pôrto Alegre (1943).

Alfredo Galvão, "Manuel de Araújo Pôrto Alegre—Sua influencia na Academia imperial das belas artes e no meio artístico de Rio de Janeiro," in Revista do Serviço do patrimonio histórico nacional 14 (1959): 19-120.

Caren Meghreblian, "Art, Politics, and Historical Perception in Imperial Brazil, 1854–1884" (Ph.D. diss., UCLA, 1990).

Additional Bibliography

Squeff, Letícia. O Brasil nas letras de um pintor: Manuel de Araújo Porto Alegre (1806–1879). Campinas, SP, Brazil: Editora da UNICAMP, 2004.

                                       Caren A. Meghreblian