Biography
Pedro Américo de Figueiredo e Mello (Areia, Paraíba, 1843 - Florence, Italy, 1905). Painter, draughtsman, teacher, caricaturist, writer. Before reaching the age of 10, he accompanied as auxiliary draughtsman, the scientific expedition of the French naturalist, Jean Brunet, to the Northeast of Brazil, in 1852. Around 1855, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he studied at the Colégio Pedro II [Pedro II School], enrolling in the following year at the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes - Aiba [Imperial Academy of Fine Arts]. Between 1859 and 1864, with a scholarship granted by the Emperor, Dom Pedro II (1825 - 1891), he studied at the École National Superiéure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he was a pupil of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780 - 1867), Hippolyte Flandrin (1809 - 1864) and Carle-Horace Vernet (1789 - 1863), as well as at the Institute of Physics and the Sorbonne. After a voyage to Italy, he returned to Rio de Janeiro in 1864 and took up the chair of drawing at Aiba. In the following year, he settled in Brussels, Belgium, gaining the title of Doctor of Science from the University of Brussels in 1868. He alternated stays in Rio de Janeiro and Florence, but continued as a lecturer in aesthetics, history of art and archaeology at Aiba. From 1870 to 1871, he was responsible for the caricature magazine, A Comédia Social [The Social Comedy]. In 1877, he exhibited the Batalha de Avaí [Battle of Avaí] in Florence, which had been commissioned by the Army Ministry. The work was again exhibited, together with the Batalha dos Guararapes [Battle of Guararapes], by Victor Meirelles (1832 - 1903), at the Exposição Geral de Belas Artes [General Exhibition of Fine Arts] of 1879, generating major controversy. From 1886 to 1888, he painted the canvas, Independência ou Morte [Independence or Death] for the Salon of Honour of the Museum of Ipiranga, currently the Museu Paulista da Universidade de São Paulo - MP/USP [São Paulo Museum of the University of São Paulo]. With the Proclamation of the Republic, he was elected a deputy of the National Assembly. In 1900, he returned to Florence.