Simplício Rodrigues de Sá ( – 9 March 1839) was a Portuguese-born painter and art professor who spent most of his career in Brazil.

Biography

Simplício Rodrigues de Sá was born in the parish of São Nicolau Tolentino (now part of the municipality of São Domingos) just north of the city of

Praia Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

He studied in Lisbon and emigrated to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in 1809. Seven years later, he became a follower of Jean Baptiste Debret, joining his group, the French Artistic Mission and helping to lay the foundations for what would become the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes in 1826.Brief biographies
@ the Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural. He was also named a

court painter A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...

and a private art tutor to Princess Maria da Glória, the future Queen of Portugal. For his services, Emperor Pedro I awarded him the Order of Christ in 1826, and named him a Knight in the

Order of the Southern Cross The National Order of the Southern Cross () is a Brazilian Orders, decorations, and medals of Brazil, order of chivalry founded by List of monarchs of Brazil, Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, Pedro I on 1 December 1822. The order aimed to commemorate ...

. In 1831, when Debret returned to Paris, De Sá took his place as head of the History Painting Department at the Imperial Academy. In 1833, he became drawing master for the child-Emperor Pedro II and his sisters. After the death of in 1834, he took over the Department of Design at the Academy. He also organized the first two major public exhibitions held there, in 1829 and 1830, although his first solo exhibition appears to have been given posthumously. He worked in several genres, including religious works for the Church of the "Ordem Terceira de São Francisco da Penitência", but is largely remembered as a portrait painter who focused on members of the

Royal Family A royal family is the immediate family of monarchs and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papal family describes the family of a pope, while th ...

. He was apparently blind at the time of his death.

References

External links

1780s births 1839 deaths Brazilian painters Portrait painters 18th-century Brazilian people 19th-century Brazilian artists Portuguese emigrants Court painters People from Santiago, Cape Verde Year of birth uncertain {{Brazil-painter-stub