This paper analyses the “Pedro Américo Scheme”, which was at the origin of a new pattern of validation in the artistic environment of Rio de Janeiro. Itconsisted of constant comings and goings from Brazil to Europe, made possible, above all, by the commission of great works with patriotic motifs. This scheme was reproduced regularlybetween the decades of 1870 and 1910, and it formed and artistic elite known for living of art between Brazil and Europe. The paper analyses the ways in which the elites were entangled and contributed to the internationalization of Brazilian art, through the curious diversion of Brazil painted in Europe ; from which derived an unstable status: not so much an art guided by the commitment with the country, not so much an international art, like the “art for the art” of the pompiers , nor the painting of modern life.
Artist travels; Brazil and Europe; Brazilianart; Nabuco’s Disease; Artistic elite