He became an esteemed teacher at the Academy, forming a generation of painters, and continued his personal work by performing other important historical paintings, such as Batalha dos Guararapes, Moema and Combate Naval do Riachuelo, as well as portraits and landscapes, of which the Retrato de Dom Pedro II and his three Panoramas stand out.

In his heyday he was considered one of the leading artists of the second reign, often receiving high praise for the perfection of his technique, the nobility of his inspiration and the general quality of his monumental compositions, as well as his unblemished character and tireless dedication to his craft.

Meirelles' works belong to the Brazilian academic tradition, formed by an eclectic synthesis of neoclassical, romantic and realist references, but the painter also absorbed Baroque and Nazarene influences.

[1] According to records, at the age of five he began to be educated in Latin, Portuguese and arithmetic, but he spent his free time drawing dolls and landscapes from his island of Santa Catarina and copying other people's images that he found in engravings and pamphlets.

At the same time, Meirelles probably completed his general studies at the Jesuit College, which taught classes in Latin, French, philosophy, elementary history, geography, rhetoric, and geometry, and it is possible that he came into contact with traveling artists who documented nature and the local people.

He tried, on the recommendation of Araújo Porto-Alegre, at the time director of the Academy and his main mentor, to be admitted as a student of Paul Delaroche, but the master suddenly died, so he had to look for another direction, finding it in Léon Cogniet, an equally celebrated romantic painter, member of the École des Beaux-Arts and a reference for foreigners who were going to study in Europe.

At that time, his production was numerous, standing out among all his works A Primeira Missa no Brasil, executed between 1858 and 1861, which earned him space and praise at the prestigious Paris Salon of 1861, an unprecedented feat for Brazilian artists that had a very positive impact in his homeland.

The two battle paintings were exhibited at the Salon of 1879 and both artists received the Grand Prix and the title of dignitaries of the Order of the Rose, but it triggered the greatest aesthetic controversy that had hitherto taken place in Brazil.

[3][12] In 1889, with the Proclamation of the Republic in Brazil, the official artists of the monarchy were politically persecuted and in 1890 Meirelles was early dismissed from the Imperial Academy, now transformed into the National School of Fine Arts.

[13] For a year he managed to get a position as a teacher at the Lyceum of Arts and Crafts,[5] but from 1891, once again unemployed, he installed his Panorama do Rio in a rotunda specially built for him in the square of the Imperial Palace, where he charged a thousand réis per visitor.

Independent for few years, the country sought to consolidate its position among the great nations through a modernization program, in which a nationalist motivation was obvious and where support for the arts was indispensable as a proof and propaganda of the progress achieved as a cultured civilization and as a regional military power.

[6][20][21] The Imperial Academy, where Meirelles was educated, was one of the executive arms of this civilizing program, which also sought to move away from the memory of colonial times under Portuguese rule through affiliation to other models of culture, such as France and Italy, where many painters were sent to improve their skills.

During its creation Meirelles kept in contact by correspondence with the then director of the Academy, Manuel de Araújo Porto-Alegre, who served as spokesperson for the official ideology and led the painter's work in various aspects, which happened throughout his entire student period.

[22] It was in the Sainte-Geneviève Library, in Paris, that Meirelles found material for studying Brazilian amerindians, and not in Brazil, where the indigenous peoples had long been driven to remote regions, decimated or acculturated.

During his period of study, he came into contact with the entire tradition of Western painting, absorbing references from the Renaissance, which included, for example, Raphael and Giuseppe Cesari, from the Baroque of Titian and Tintoretto and from neoclassicals and romantics such as Cogniet, Vernet, Delaroche and Delacroix.

[23] An especially significant influence in the idealist sense, in his formative period, was the contact with the production of the Nazarene group, through Johann Friedrich Overbeck and his teachers Tommaso Minardi and Nicola Consoni.

[24][25] His classicism can be seen in the general harmony of the compositions, in its placid character, in its interpretation of nature loaded with poetry, and even when it comes to battles, the impression of movement and violence, which would be expected for such a theme, is in the background, and what stands out is the balanced organization of the set, as the author himself recognized, largely canceling the effect of drama.

[10][27] In Meirelles time, Brazil was just emerging from the Baroque tradition, which was still alive in several places, but which since the beginning of the 19th century, under the influence of the neoclassical avant-garde sponsored by the Portuguese court and the French Mission, was already considered outdated by the elite.

Even giving great importance to classical principles, the way he organized his compositions, with groups forming dynamic opposites, and the basically pictorial and non-graphic treatment of the painting, his taste for light effects, sfumato and "atmosphere", bring him closer to the Baroque and romantic style.

[28][30][31] For specialists such as Mario Barata and Lilia Schwarcz, Meirelles production fits more correctly into the eclectic romanticism typical of the second half of the 19th century, with its patriotic and idealistic associations and a certain sentimentality, a tendency that predominated in the period of Pedro II's maturity, and which coincided with the heyday of Brazilian academism.

Thus, instead of discussing whether Meirelles or Américo are or are not classics, are or are not romantics, are or are not pre-modernists – which puts me in safe and comfortable parameters, but profoundly limited – it is preferable to take these paintings as complex projects, with specific requirements often unexpected".

In any case, the academic system had the classical reference as central in its ideological body and in its teaching methodology, and represented a remarkably successful attempt to formulate a theory in which art was an incarnation of the ideal principles of beauty, truth and good, destined to be a powerful instrument of public education and social reform.

In this phase he composed his panoramas, the most important works of the period, and those that bring him closer to the modern universe, both in terms of genre and in the techniques of creation and exhibition, and in their commercial, advertising and educational purposes.

The richness of the painting's details, representing multiple expressions and situations, its evocative, technical and aesthetic qualities, immortalized the official narrative of the Discovery of Brazil as a heroic and peaceful act, celebrated in ecumenism by colonizers and indigenous people.

[6][20][49] Jorge Coli, reflecting on the critical consensus, wrote that: "Meirelles has reached the rare convergence of forms, intentions and meanings that make a painting powerfully enter a culture.

Speaking of Batalha dos Guararapes, and responding to the painter's declaration of intent, he said that everything was false, everything was montage, fantasy and convention, in no way corresponding to the events and feelings that should have taken place in the real conflagration:[52] "Mr. Meirelles 'who only wants to get it right', confesses that he changed the fact, went against history, did not paint the battle of Guararapes, but a happy and friendly meeting, in which Barreto de Meneses hugged Van Schoppe, Fernandes Vieira and Filipe Camarão, and Henrique Dias greeted Vidal de Negreiros in his own language: - Bença, meu sá moço!

The Battle of Guararapes is therefore not a historical painting, as the title indicates and the catalog states, [...] but a caricature to laugh at, a playful combat, like those of the Moors and Christians, which the São Pedro de Alcântara theater gave us, old edition!

[28] Meirelles, together with his biggest rival, Pedro Américo, managed to produce images of great evocative power, which to this day remain alive in Brazil's collective memory as the canonical visualization of some of its main founding myths.

[6][20][21][32] Mário Coelho stated that:[58] "Meirelles knew the glory of the decorated, the criticism of the feuilletons, he was traditional, produced solid works, images that were 'eternal', and [was] innovative, adhering to the ephemeral and the fashion of panoramas.

He was a student and teacher at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, participated in the formation of a generation of painters, wrote about his own work, justifying it, explaining it, argued critically several times, placed advertisements in newspapers, but above all, he painted his entire life, in Europe and Brazil.