Museu da Chácara do Céu

The house of Santa Teresa, known since 1876 as Chácara do Céu, was inherited by Castro Maya in 1936. The current construction, designed in 1954 by the architect Wladimir Alves de Souza, stands out for the modernity of the architectural solutions and for its location, which integrates the gardens and allows magnificent 360 degree views over the city and Guanabara Bay. In the Museum of the Chácara do Céu is the collection of European art - that includes paintings, drawings and engravings of consecrated artists like Matisse, Modigliani, Degas, Seurat, Miró; the collection of Brazilian art, formed mainly by works of modern artists, among them Guignard, Di Cavalcanti, Iberê Camargo, Antonio Bandeira, as well as an important collection of works by Portinari, now considered the largest public collection of this artist; the collection of Brasiliana, one of the most expressive, includes maps of the 17th and 18th centuries, oil paintings, watercolors, gouaches, drawings and engravings of 19th century travelers such as Rugendas, Chamberlain and Taunay, highlighting more than 500 original of Jean-Baptiste Debret, acquired in Paris in 1939 and 1940; and the Biblioteca Castro Maya, with some eight thousand titles among books of art, Brazilian and European literature, mainly French, and also some of the most important publications of the first travelers of century XIX: Maria Graham, Maximilian von Wied-Neuwied, Henry Chamberlain , William Gore Ouseley and Victor Frond.