Georg Grimm
1846–1887 · German 19th-century painter active in Brazil
Johann Georg Grimm (1846–1887) was a German painter, designer and decorator, best known for the work he made during a long stay in the Empire of Brazil, where he is the patron of chair 19 of the Brazilian Academy of Fine Arts. He first trained as a carpenter like his father, but a job in a castle library awakened his interest in painting. He travelled across Bavaria and reached Munich in 1868, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts under Karl von Piloty and Franz Adam, despite living in great poverty.
After travelling through Berlin, Italy, North Africa, Spain, France and England, he reached Lisbon and, probably in late 1877 or early 1878, settled in Rio de Janeiro. There he worked with a German-born decorating firm and began painting landscapes and topographical views of fazendas with almost photographic precision. After a further trip to the Eastern Mediterranean, he returned to Brazil, won a gold medal at the Sociedade Propagadora das Belas Artes exhibition and was appointed to a chair at the Imperial Academy, where he introduced plein-air painting. Disputes with the leadership led him to resign in 1884, and some students followed him to form the so-called Grupo Grimm, which included Castagneto and Antônio Parreiras.
In Minas Gerais he painted coffee plantations and their architecture. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis and died in Palermo in 1887. His legacy lies in the renewal of Brazilian academic painting and the spread of plein-air practice.