The Brazilian Academy of Fine Arts was founded in the city of Rio de Janeiro, on the night of April 20, 1948, under the leadership of the artist, poet and intellectual José Venturelli Sobrinho. Attending the founding session, at the traditional Hotel Palace on Avenida Rio Branco, were Alfredo Galvão, Leão Velloso, Quirino Campofiorito, Raul Deveza, Cadmo Fausto de Souza, Oswaldo Teixeira, Arquimedes Memoria, Manoel Santiago and many other equally celebrated names. Today, as distinguished patrons of its chairs, there are Rodolfo Bernardelli, Cândido Portinari, Di Cavalcanti, Jean Baptiste Debret, Rodolfo Amoêdo, Oswaldo Teixeira, João Baptista Castagneto, Manoel Santiago, Alberto da Veiga Guignard, José Pancetti, Aurélio D’Alincourt, Mestre Valentim and a whole host of men who had the privilege of using the brush, the paint, the chisel, the hammer and the staff as their working tools.