João Augusto Ribeiro was born in Vila Real on 24 November 1860. Between 1877 and 1885 he studied at the Academia Portuense de Belas Artes, where he was a pupil of João António Correia.
He took part in exhibitions at the Academia Portuense de Belas Artes (1881 and following), the Grémio Artístico de Lisboa (1892 and following), the Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes (between 1903 and 1919) and the Sociedade de Belas-Artes do Porto (between 1908 and 1932).
In Porto he became known as a portrait painter who was faithful to the model, a characteristic that is clearly evident in his self-portrait (cover photo) from 1920, but also in his portraits of the painter Cândido da Cunha, the engineer J. Cordewener and the surgeon Couto Soares.
João Augusto Ribeiro painted rustic subjects, landscapes and historical themes, such as the three paintings about Vasco da Gama’s sea voyage to India – “A Partida” (The Departure), “A Chegada” (The Arrival) and “O Regresso” (The Return) – which are reproduced in the book “Virtudes e Heroísmos Lusíadas”, organised by Estefânia Cabreira and Oliveira Cabral.
João Augusto Ribeiro’s pictorial work is represented in the Soares dos Reis National Museum and the Marta Ortigão Sampaio House-Museum in Porto, the Chiado Museum and the City Hall in Lisbon, the Grão Vasco Museum in Viseu, and in Couto Soares and Rodrigo Faria de Castro collections. She was awarded the 1st medal of the National Fine Arts Society in 1918 and a gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Exhibition (1922).
The artist also had a career in teaching, having been a professor at the Industrial and Commercial Institute of Porto for 44 years. He also taught at the Porto School of Fine Arts as interim professor for several subjects.
He worked as a publicist for the magazines Arte Portuguesa and A Águia and was an effective member of the Art and Archaeology Council of the 3rd District.
He died in Porto in 1932.
Image: The Fisherman, oil on canvas, by J. A. Ribeiro, 1917 (?)