This article discusses the fundamental aspects of the critical revision of Brazilian art in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, namely: the issue of a better conceptualization of the term academic when used with reference to artistic styles; the difficulty of understanding Brazilian artistic production outside the sequential schema of styles - generally used to represent European art; and the discussion concerning the role of the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes (Imperial Academy of the Fine Arts) and the Empire's cultural project for the construction of a national identity - with special attention to the relationship between the artistic production and the social theories of the day.
Historiography and art criticism; artistic styles; 19th-century Brazilian art; Academia Imperial de Belas Artes (Imperial Academy of the Fine Arts)