Career
His inclination for art emerged early in childhood and developed over time. His willingness to learn drawing and painting was huge. Finally reached the age to attend school where he would develop his great vocation.
In 1837 he enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts.
He left the following year for Rome where he studied under the guidance of French landscape painter Jean-Achille Benouville. He spent 8 years in Italy and produced works of true merit there.
Returning to Brazil in 1859 he began to teach at the Academy. Initially he occupied the chair of drawing and then of landscape.
Amongst his pupils, Modesto Brocos, Henrique Bernardelli, Pedro Peres, Firmino Monteiro and José Maria de Medeiros became well known.
The Empress Teresa Cristina commissioned several still lifes from him, a genre in which he excelled. He was the pioneer of outdoor painting in Brazil, preceding Georg Grimm, who received the cr for this. In later life he faced financial difficulties, having to paint advertising hoardings to survive.
