Victor Meirelles Museum

The Museum, named after the great artist from Santa Catarina, Victor Meirelles, was installed in 1952, in the painter's former home, a typically Portuguese-Brazilian townhouse from the end of the XNUMXth century, located in the Centro from Florianopolis.

Before becoming a Museum, the artist's townhouse was under constant threat of demolition, because, in addition to being in a bad state of preservation, the building took up a good part of the street, making it difficult for cars to traffic in the place. This great threat meant that the project, which aimed to transform the house into a museum, was advanced. Therefore, in 1946, exactly 43 years after the painter's death, President Eurico Gaspar Dutra signed the decree authorizing the acquisition of the property for the Union. And, after four years, the house was declared a National Historic Landmark, transforming it into the Victor Meirelles Museum.

Currently, the space has as a museological plan, to preserve, research and disseminate to the world, the life and work of the artist from Santa Catarina, highlighting its due importance, as well as its historical, artistic and cultural values ​​for the whole society.
The place, which is free and open to the public, aims to stimulate, reflect and explore the field of arts, contributing to the expansion of cultural manifestations in Santa Catarina and their insertion in the lives of all who visit the Victor Meirelles Museum.

The painter

Victor Meirelles de Lima was born in Desterro, present-day Florianópolis, on August 18, 1832. Son of Antônio Meirelles de Lima, a Portuguese immigrant, and the Brazilian Maria da Conceição, Victor Meirelles was a poor boy whose vocation was revealed in his childhood, encouraged by his parents and supported by the official authorities of the time: at the age of fourteen he won a scholarship to attend the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, in Rio de Janeiro. And, at the age of twenty, with the canvas "São João Batista no Cárcere" - 1852, Victor Meirelles won the Special Prize for Travel to Europe.

From 1853 to 1861, he lived first in Italy and then in France, where he devoted himself to study and work. Back in Brazil, the artist received the title of Knight of the Order of the Rose and was appointed professor of painting at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. From then on, Victor Meirelles became one of the greatest expressions of Fine Arts in Brazil in the XNUMXth century.
The artist died in Rio de Janeiro on February 22, 1903.

the collection

Author of the most popular of Brazilian canvases, “The First Mass in Brazil”, reproduced in school notebooks, stamps, currency notes, art books, catalogs and magazines, Victor Meirelles left an extraordinary collection, with detailed sketches, drawings, studies on paper and countless works of oil on canvas and watercolor, made during the various phases of the brilliant trajectory of the artist from Santa Catarina.

The Museum also has temporary exhibitions by the famous painter, held in a cultural space, which aims to promote the emerging artist and the recognition of the established artist, in addition to the concern with periods and movements of historical and artistic relevance in the national and international scenarios.

Address, visitation and contact

Victor Meirelles Museum - Rua Victor Meirelles, 59 - Downtown.
From Tuesday to Friday, from 10 am to 18 pm. Saturdays from 10 am to 14 pm. Sundays and holidays (closed).
Gratuitous.
(48) 3222-0692 or through the website of Victor Meirelles Museum.