The Swiss born artist Buvelot travelled to Brazil in 1840, possibly at the behest of his uncle who had a coffee plantation in Leopoldina (Bahia) and his artistic progress is first recorded in Brazil. One of a group of Swiss expatriates in Rio de Janeiro, he began to exhibit regularly at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts and produced the present popular album in collaboration with the French history painter Moreau in 1842, Buvelot supplying the landscapes and Moreau the figures. He was made a Knight of the Order of the Rose by the Emperor Dom Pedro II in 1847 and returned to Switzerland in 1852. His enduring reputation as a landscape painter would be made in his years in Australia from 1865 until his death in 1888. Moreau left France for Brazil in the late 1830s and settled in Rio in 1840, exhibiting portraits and genre scenes at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts from 1841.

Rio de Janeiro Pitoresco was published in parts from 1842-45, and originally sold in sets of six plates for 5000 reis. The complete album is rarely seen on the market