Missão Artística Francesa

The French Artistic Mission in Brazil (Portuguese: Missão Artística Francesa; French: Mission artistique française) was a group of French artists, artisans, and architects who arrived in Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, in March 1816. The group was led by the public administrator Joachim Lebreton and funded by Dom João VI following the fall of Napoleon and a period of intense political instability in France. The Mission sought to modernize artistic production and education in Brazil by introducing modern European art principles and academic training. It led to the creation of the Royal School of Sciences, Arts and Crafts, the first of its kind in Latin America and the Portuguese colonial world, and a key to the development of Brazilian artists and artistic production. The French Mission is also associated with the strengthening of the Neoclassicism movement in Brazil.

The Mission included French artistic figures such as Jean-Baptiste Debret, Nicolas Antoine Taunay, Auguste Marie Taunay, Marc Ferrez, the architect Grandjean de Montigny, François Ovide, among others. Their work was slow to bear fruit. The Mission encountered resistance from artists and patrons firmly rooted in the Baroque tradition; faced a scarcity of financial resources and a series of political intrigues which ultimately dissolved much of the initial enthusiasm for the project.