A street scene in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil

Buvelot followed his uncle out to Bahia, Brazil, in 1835, and spent 5 years at Bahia (his uncle had a coffee plantation at Leopoldina) before moving to Rio de Janeiro. Little is known of his early work in Brazil, but a group of small pictures, dating from around 1837, and including views of Swiss-related subjects (the factory of the Swiss pioneer in Brazil, Auguste-Frédéric Meuron) might be plausibly given to him, and may be by the same hand as the present picture (see C. Martins, Brasiliana, a collection revealed, Sao Paolo, 2000, pp.88-91). Buvelot returned to Vevey, Switzerland, in 1852.