Overcoming Obstacles

Abstract

After several failures in the artistic education in Portugal, throughout the 18th century, the 19th century was still to bring a few setbacks. Social and political upheavals marked the first years of the century, with the invasions of Napoleonic armies and the civil war. In this chapter I will tell the history of the birth of the first public art museum, created in Porto in 1833. The meeting of the future king D. Pedro IV and the artist Baptista Ribeiro was about to make history. Indeed, when Baptista Ribeiro delivered the prince a report on the need to create a public art museum in the city, the prince couldn't be happier. He then invited Baptista Ribeiro to organize it, giving all his support to the creation of the first public art museum in the nation. It would, in fact, take more than a 100 years to match the dream of its first director. But in the meantime, it surely achieved more than he could expect.