Lot Essay
Monvoisin left France for Chile in 1843, lured by the climate and the opportunity of founding an Academy of Fine Arts in Santiago. He returned to France briefly in 1847 and en route back to Chile stopped in Rio de Janeiro for ten weeks, painting the emperor Dom Pedro II and empress Teresa Cristina at the palace of São Cristovão and completing a series of views of the bay. He sailed in mid January 1848 for Chile where he worked until returning to France in 1857.