Jean-Baptiste Debret

Jean-Baptiste Debret (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ batist dəbʁɛ]; 18 April 1768 – 28 June 1848) was a French painter, who produced many valuable lithographs depicting the people of Brazil. Debret won the second prize at the 1798 Salon des Beaux Arts. He is the Patron of the 22nd chair of the Brazilian Academy of Fine Arts.

Debret studied at the French Academy of Fine Arts, a pupil of the great Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825) to whom he was related. He accompanied David to Rome in the 1780s. His debut was at the Salon des Beaux Arts of 1798, where he got the second prize.

He travelled to Brazil in March 1816 as a member of the so-called French Artistic Mission, a group of bonapartist French artists and artisans bound to creating an arts and crafts lyceum in Rio de Janeiro (Escola Real de Artes e Ofícios) under the auspices of King D. João VI and the Count of Barca. The lyceum later became the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes (Imperial Academy of Fine Arts) under Emperor Dom Pedro I.