Nicolas Antoine Taunay (1755-1830) 

• Was a French painter.
• His father was an enamel painter.
• Taunay entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris at the age of fifteen and became a pupil of Nicolas-Bernard Lepicié.
• He later studied in the studios of Nicolas-Guy Brenet and Francesco Giuseppe Casanova.
• He specialized in painting landscapes.
• Taunay obtained a three-year scholarship to study at the French Academy in Rome in the Palazzo Mancini.
• While in Italy he met the artist Jacques-Louis David.
• After the fall of Napoleon Taunay moved to Brazil as a member of the Missão Artística Francesa, funded by King John VI of Portugal.
• The Missão Artística Francesa was organized by Joachim Lebreton.
• He had brought a group of artists to Brazil, arriving in Rio de Janeiro on 25 March 1816.
• These included the painter Jean-Baptiste Debret, Nicolas's brother the sculptor Auguste Marie Taunay, the engraver Charles-Simon Pradier and the architect Auguste-Henri-Victor Grandjean de Montigny.
• They were to form the nucleus of a royal art academy in Brazil.
• Nicolas-Antoine Taunay became a member of the Royal School of Sciences, Arts and Trades, later to become the Imperial Academy of Beaux-Arts, as professor of landscape painting.
• Nicolas-Antoine Taunay returned to France in 1821, holding the title of Baron of Taunay, granted by the Portuguese king.
• Nicolas-Antoine Taunay died in 1830.
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