Museu Nacional de Belas Artes

From Tuesday to Friday, 10am-6pm; on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, 1pm-6pm.

Museu Nacional de Belas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts)

Occupying the building that was built in 1908 by architect Adolfo Moralles de los Rios for the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (National School of Fine Arts), this museum keeps the largest and most important collection of Brazilian art of the nineteenth century. By bringing together about seventy thousand items including prints, sculptures, paintings, drawings, books and documents, its original assembly was formed by the works of art brought with the Portuguese monarchy in 1808, during the Court's transfer to Brazil. Equally remarkable is the collection of works either brought or authored by members of the Missão Artística Francesa (French Artistic Mission), in 1816, such as Joachim Lebreton, Nicolas-Antoine Taunay and Jean-Baptiste Debret.

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