in 1885, to paint the Panorama do Rio de Janeiro, a view taken from the Santo Antônio hill. For this, he had the help of Henri Langerock, founding with him a panorama company, a genre that was quickly becoming popular in various techniques and could mean a good profit for artists through the collection of tickets for visitation. In 1887 the painting was exhibited in Brussels, making use of a rotating cylinder that allowed spectators to contemplate the views in 360 degrees. The work was inaugurated in the presence of the Belgian royal family and a large body of nobles and authorities, being visited by about 50 thousand people, with great repercussion in the press. By this time his partnership with Langerock was broken, who sued him for alleged financial losses, but the case was decided in Meirelles' favor. In 1889 the panorama was exhibited at the 1889 Exposition Universelle, where it received a gold medal and more praise from the press and the public, but due to a failure in the event's programming and the competition of many other attractions, including panoramas by other artists, its visitation was little expressive. Last years In 1889, with the Proclamation of the Republic in Brazil, the official artists of the monarchy were politically persecuted and in 1890 Meirelles was early dismissed from the Imperial Academy, now transformed into the National School of Fine Arts. At just 57 years old, it was claimed he was too old. For a year he managed to get a position as a teacher at the Lyceum of Arts and Crafts, but from 1891, once again unemployed, he installed his Panorama do Rio in a rotunda specially built for him in the square of the Imperial Palace, where he charged a thousand réis per visitor. According to reports of the time, in its first year of exhibition, the work was visited by about 70,000 people, but this may be advertising exaggeration. A little later, Meirelles gave free access to schoolchildren and offered detailed teaching materials to complement the work. In 1893 the government sent a representation to the World's Columbian Exposition, where Primeira Missa no Brasil and the Panorama of Rio were exhibited with great success. In the same year he founded a painting school with Décio Villares and Eduardo de Sá, but classes ended after a few months. His second panoramic composition appeared in 1896, a vast