MUSEUM OF BRAZILIAN ART – FAAP PRESENTS THE EXHIBITION - "TRAVELING DIARIES: PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE KING LEOPOLD III IN BRAZIL"

King Leopold III (1901-1983) was the fourth king of the Belgians. He succeeded his father, King Albert I in 1934 and abdicated in favor of his son, crowned in 1951, King Baudouin I.

His interest in photography began on his 11th birthday, when he won a gift from his mother, Queen Elisabeth (also photographer), a Kodak Bull's Eye, and with this equipment he registered his first trips abroad: to the United States in 1919 and Brazil in 1920.

The trip of the Prince Leopold to Brazil in the company of his parents, King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth, was made in recognition of the solidarity that his country received from Brazil during the First World War and also aimed to strengthen cultural and economical ties .

After the abdication, King Leopold III dedicated to travel around the world on scientifical expeditions accompanied by ethnologists, anthropologists, zoologists and botanists.

In the 1960s, he made four trips to Brazil, two in 1962, one in 1964 and another in 1967.

Toured several cities and regions of Brazil, focusing mainly in central Brazil and the Amazon.