Auguste Francois Biard (June 30, 1799 - June 20, 1882) was a French genre painter. Born at Lyon, he traveled around the world, sketching on the way. He was particularly successful in rendering "burlesque groups". Biard was a known abolitionist against the Atlantic slave trade.

Painter, draftsman, printmaker, caricaturist and designer, Francois Auguste Biard began his studies in 1820 at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, under Pierre-Henri Révoil (1776-1842). In 1824, he moved to Paris. In 1827, as an art teacher in the Navy, he went to Spain and then to Syria, Greece and Egypt. He also worked for publications on geographical and maritime subjects. Back in France, he became the official portrait artist of the court.

In the 1830s he toured and painted in England, Scotland, Spain and Switzerland. He arrived in Brazil in 1858 and remained there for two years. He visited the rivers Amazon, Negro and Madeira. In Rio de Janeiro, in 1859, he painted portraits of members of the Portuguese court in the workshop of the Paço Imperial, made available for him by Emperor Dom Pedro II (1825-1891).

He was appointed professor of honnoraire Academia Imperial de Belas Artes - Aiba [Imperial Academy of Fine Arts - Aiba]. Back in France, he published in 1862 the book Two Years in Brasil, illustrated by engravings of Edouard Riou (1833-1900) and developed from Biard's drawings.

Biard took part in a long expedition to the Amazon and its tributaries. During this trip he painted paintings of indigenous rituals, revealing his interest in anthropology. In Os Índios da Amazônia adorando o Deus Sol [The Amazonian Indians Worshipping the Sun God] (ca.1860), he portrays tropical land with great attention given to the representation of plant species. This same interest in exotic plants cultures is reflected in the work:A Fabricação do Curare na Floresta Amazônica [The Making of Curare in Amazonian Forest] (ca.1860).

Submitted by Lui Antal Deák

Source:
French and Spanish Wikipedia