Dom Pedro II (Rio de Janeiro RJ 1825 - Paris, França 1891)
Pedro de Alcântara João Carlos Leopoldo Salvador Bibiano Francisco Xavier de Paula Leocádio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga de Bragança e Habsburgo.
Patron of the arts and photographer.
The son of Dom Pedro I (1798 - 1834), he is acclaimed Emperor of Brazil at only 5 years of age, when his father abdicates the throne in 1831. In 1841, by virtue of a decree of the previous year that brings forward his coming of age, he is crowned emperor. In 1842 he marries by proxy Princess Teresa Cristina Maria de Bourbon (1822 - 1889), in Naples, Italy. From 1840 onwards he regularly attends the meetings of the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro - IHGB, founded in 1838, and presides over several sessions. Thanks to his encouragement, in the 1850s the IHGB becomes a very active center of historical and literary studies. Dom Pedro II directly guides the institute's activities and fosters the Romantic production of authors such as Joaquim Manuel de Macedo (1820 - 1882) and Gonçalves Dias (1823 - 1864).
In 1840 he acquires a daguerreotype apparatus and introduces this reproduction technique into the country. A great enthusiast and promoter of new photographic techniques, he produces several daguerreotypes and photographs. This passion results in a significant collection that brings together images by several pioneers of photography, such as Marc Ferrez (1843 - 1923), Insley Pacheco (ca. 1830 - 1912) and Revert Henrique Klumb (183? - ca. 1886). The emperor becomes involved in directing and carrying out the projects of the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes - Aiba, as part of a political project to strengthen the monarchy and unify the nation. During the Second Reign (1841-1889), he implements a clear and effective policy toward Aiba. As its patron and main funder, he provides public and private support and awards scholarships, prizes, medals and insignia of the Order of the Rose to the most outstanding artists. He directly controls part of the imperial household's funds earmarked for pensions and rewards his favorite artists with these resources, known as "o bolsinho do imperador" [the emperor's little purse].
Through official commissions, he fosters production at Aiba, supported by figures such as Félix Taunay (1795 - 1881) and Porto Alegre (1806 - 1879), directors-general of the institution. Victor Meirelles (1832 - 1903) and Pedro Américo (1843 - 1905), artists of great prestige, are the most sought after. The canvases Batalha de Guararapes [Battle of Guararapes], by Américo, and Primeira Missa no Brasil [First Mass in Brazil], by Meirelles, are among the most celebrated history paintings of the period. Dom Pedro asks several Aiba artists, such as Félix Taunay and Porto Alegre, to paint his portrait in order to disseminate and perpetuate his image as monarch in various situations. Besides being a photographer, Dom Pedro considers himself an amateur portraitist and makes pencil drawings in his diaries.
Interested in science, he studies languages, astronomy and geology, and is the author of the famous phrase "A ciência sou eu" [I am science], uttered on the premises of the IHGB. He grants imperial support to research projects and funds scientists such as Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794 - 1868), Emílio Augusto Goeldi (1859 - 1917) and Auguste François Marie Glaziou (1828 - 1906). An admirer of opera, he creates the Imperial Academia de Música and the Ópera Nacional in 1857. That year, seeking to help the German composer Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883), who is going through financial difficulties, he commissions from him an opera to be staged in Rio de Janeiro, but the work is never composed.
Dom Pedro II asks Carlos Gomes (1836 - 1896) to create a national opera based on the novel O Guarani, by José de Alencar (1829 - 1877), which Gomes completes in 1870. In 1862, he makes Brazil's participation in the London International Exhibition possible. With government funds, he alone finances the country's participation in the world's fairs of Vienna (1867), Philadelphia (1876) and Paris (1889).
With the proclamation of the Republic in 1889, he is deposed and banished from the country, leaving for Europe in November of that year. After a period in Lisbon, he goes to France and lives in Cannes and Paris, where he dies in 1891. Barred from being buried in Brazil, his body only returns to the country in 1921. In 1939, at a ceremony attended by President Getúlio Vargas (1883 - 1954), he is laid to rest in the mausoleum of the cathedral of Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro. The collection of photographs and books he assembled during his reign is now part of the holdings of the Biblioteca Nacional, in Rio de Janeiro. Several paintings officially commissioned from Aiba painters now belong to public collections such as those of the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes - MNBA, in Rio de Janeiro, and the Museu Imperial, in Petrópolis.
Critiques
"The Emperor himself, then only 14 years old, was so enthusiastic about the invention that in March 1840 - that is, eight months before the advertisement we have just transcribed - he acquired an apparatus from Felício Luzughy for 250 mil-réis, probably becoming the first Brazilian to make daguerreotypes. That Dom Pedro II promptly set about familiarizing himself with the apparatus and used it with some frequency is suggested by the note made on September 8, 1842 by Prince Adalbert of Prussia in his travel diary: 'The Emperor has already made several experiments with daguerreotypy and gave me his opinion that luck plays a large part in this method, with which I agree'. Dom Pedro's fascination with the photographic art never left him. We know some photographs by him, the most curious being one of himself, on the back of which he wrote in his unmistakable handwriting: 'Photograph taken by myself'. Throughout his life he would collect photographs of relatives, friends and views of Brazil. He accumulated several albums, most of which are part of the Teresa Cristina Collection donated to the Biblioteca Nacional".
Gilberto Ferrez
Ferrez, Gilberto. A fotografia no Brasil: 1840-1900. 2. ed. p. 20.
"When his coming of age was decreed in 1840 so that he could assume the throne, Dom Pedro II was already an amateur photographer, having acquired his daguerreotype equipment in March of that same year, prompted by the demonstrations the French abbé Louis Compte had given him in January, when he introduced photography to Brazil.
By acquiring his apparatus eight months before similar ones were finally sold in the country, the Emperor became the first Brazilian photographer - and at less than 15 years of age! Moreover, he ranks among the world's pioneers, for we must not forget that the official announcement of the invention of daguerreotypy had been made very shortly before - on August 19, 1839, by the French scientist and politician François Arago. Thus, less than a year later, Dom Pedro II was already beginning to practice the new art, with the boundless enthusiasm he devoted to scientific discoveries. An enthusiasm that would never leave him, as shown by his visit to Graham Bell at the Philadelphia Fair in 1876 to see the telephone, and by his interest in Thomas Edison's phonograph, which he tested days before being deposed by the republicans, becoming one of the first Brazilians to have his voice mechanically reproduced".
Pedro Vasquez
Vasquez, Pedro. Dom Pedro II e a fotografia no Brasil. p. 14.
"Emperor Pedro II was the first Brazilian photographer and a generous patron, assembling a large collection of photographs and encouraging this activity in Brazil through the strong support he gave to a large group of professionals working in the country. Without his support, Brazilian photography would not have reached the development it achieved as early as the last century, to the point of gaining a prominent position on the Latin American scene and producing some photographers able to rival the most outstanding in the whole continent and in Europe".
Vicente Gesualdo
Gesualdo, Vicente. História de la fotografía en América: desde Alaska hasta Tierra del Fuego en el siglo XIX. p. 76-77.
Collections
Coleção Thereza Christina Maria. Biblioteca Nacional - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Coleção Dom Pedro de Orleans e Bragança - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Posthumous Exhibitions
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Dom Pedro II and Photography in Brazil, at Casa do Bispo
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Photographs. D. Thereza Christina Maria Collection, at Biblioteca Nacional
1997 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Emperor's Collection. Brazilian and Foreign Photographs in the 19th Century, at CCBB
Source: Itaú Cultural
