BIARD, François Auguste.

Deux années au Brésil.

Paris, Hachette, 1862. Large 8vo (250 x 165 mm), pp. [iv], 680, with two maps, one folding; numerous illustrations in the text, many full-page; contemporary red morocco-backed boards, top edge gilt; extremities lightly rubbed. First edition. ‘François Auguste Biard was born in Lyon in 1788, and died near Fontainebleau in 1882. A painter without much talent, but an extremely clever person, he managed to fall into the good graces of Louis Philippe, who ultimately bought many of his paintings for Versailles. Biard travelled a great deal; he visited Egypt, the Middle East, and Spitzbergen, where he took Leonie d’Aunet with whom he lived at the time, and whom he later married. He visited Brazil in 1860. In Rio he succeeded in ingratiating himself with the Emperor, who in turn commissioned him to paint his portrait, as well as that of several members of the Imperial family. Biard travelled through Espirito Santo and up to the River Amazon by way of the coastal cities. He published the account of this journey in the magazine, Le tour du monde. In 1862 he assembled it into one volume, illustrated by Riou from his own sketches’ (Borba de Moraes).Borba de Moraes p. 106; Sabin 5134.

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