In this double self-portrait, the artist paints himself in the very act of self-depiction. It is a premeditatedly realised game of opposing times between the two artistic worlds in which the artist moved: drawing and painting. The former is clearly reinforced, since the painted portrait is here the moment of passage and the drawing, refined in rigour and synthesis, the final work.

This is a highly particular work that José Tagarro produced towards the end of his life and which was, in fact, prematurely interrupted. Considered one of the most revealing of how the artist understood his own production and career, it is one of the most striking self-portraits in Portuguese art.

A key Portuguese artwork of the first half of the 20th century, this stretch of houses in the suburbs of Paris would also be explored by Dordio Gomes through engraving and in his Autorretrato da Natureza Morta (Still Life Self-Portrait) produced a year later. Malakoff is on the outskirts of Paris, named in honour of the French victory in one of the battles of the Crimean War. The place has attracted numerous artists, both as a place of residence and as a subject.

In this painting, the tension generated by the distortion of volumes and space, as if seen through a lens, provokes a sensation of vertigo and creates a disquieting and desolate atmosphere. The simplification of forms, the strategic placement of black lines and the accentuation of edges reveal the artist’s interpretation of a synthesis of influences that marked European art of this period, in which Cézanne and German expressionism predominated.

Testifying to the avant-gardism of Eduardo Viana’s production in this period, the theme of this painting – a set of small clay figures characteristic of Barcelos and a rag doll – is completely in tune with the interest that emerged in the first half of the 20th century in Europe for games and features synthesising popular traditions.
Eduardo Viana usually bought clay figurines in the Barcelos markets and would have introduced the subject to the circle of artists that was then forming around the Delaunays, who arrived in Portugal precisely in the summer of 1915. See, for example, the numerous jouets portugais produced after that by Sonia Delaunay or Amadeo de Souza Cardoso’s A Russa e o Fígaro (The Russian Woman and Le Figaro).

This work, whose original title was Après l’orage, confronts us with the desolation of an elderly poor woman on finding her apple tree split by the storm. Eminently narrative, the work draws us into the scene and involves us in the personal drama of the character, immediately arousing our empathy.
Perhaps one of the rare moments in which Portuguese painting of this period truly touched the realistic register, this painting nevertheless demonstrates the artist’s extraordinary technical skill. It offers us an unusual compositional structure, in which the figure and the tree are part of an immense foreground, crowned by the narrow strip of distant houses and by the sky, still darkened by the storm.

In this work, Henrique Pousão subverts the classic theme of the ciociaro, inhabitant of the Italian region of Lazio, represented here as a mischievous, half-clothed boy, captured not posing, but at the very moment when he is resting from his pose and has dared to sketch someone’s portrait. The idea of the improvised artist, a precocious and natural genius, who takes advantage of the painter’s absence to take his place and show his work, in the expectation of an uncertain reception, are aspects that function almost like a projection of the artist’s circumstance onto that of his model. This work thus reveals an unexpected artistic ‘manifesto’ sent by the young painter to his masters. Painted in Rome in 1882, Pousão sent it from there to the Academia Portuense de Belas Artes, as part of the consignment of works from his second year as a scholarship student abroad.

This scene of domestic intimacy is well defined by the original title the painter gave it when he exhibited Entre o almoço e o jantar (Between Lunch and Dinner).
Silva Porto displays a highly developed sense of composition here and there is great quality in the treatment of light, together with a rare narrative richness.
An unexpected novelty in this representation is the dialogue between the interior, where everything takes place in an intimate atmosphere, and the landscape represented in the background, from where the intense light emanates. This light invades the interior in an oblique direction and is seen projected on the white tablecloth placed on the table and on the transparency of the bottle. Marques de Oliveira painted the work in 1884, a few years after his return from his scholarship stays in France and Italy between 1873 and 1879.

This final piece for his State scholarship in Paris was sent by the painter to the Academia Portuense in 1879. It represents a rural landscape in large format done in the outskirts of Paris.

The vibration of the light on the motifs, the rapid brushstrokes of intense colours and the unconventional representation of space in perspective (through bands of colour differentiated by the texture and impasto technique) express the modernity of the emerging aesthetics that influenced Silva Porto in the artistic centres he attended and the intense work he carried out in France and Italy between 1873 and 1879. The reasons for the landscape painter’s success on his return to Portugal and his influence over younger generations can thus be clearly understood.

During the Peninsular War, Domingos Sequeira established friendships with officers of the Napoleonic army, such as the Count of Forbin, an officer and amateur painter. This approach earned him a commission for an allegorical representation of General Junot’s protective action over Lisbon. Thanks to this activity, Sequeira was seen as a collaborator with the occupying enemy and was therefore subjected to persecution and conviction, from which he was only rehabilitated at great cost.

This composition has three groups of figures in the foreground, including Junot, in military dress, facing a young woman who represents the city of Lisbon, supported by Religion and the Genius of the Nation. On the left, the two men represent Mars annihilating Neptune, symbolising France and England respectively, while on the opposite side, the two women symbolise abundance and wisdom, Ceres and Minerva.

This scene was painted in London and presented in 1798 at the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition. The episode chosen by the painter refers to David Hume’s History of England, and specifically a moment from the War of the Roses between the Houses of Lancaster and York. A thief tries to rob Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England, when she was fleeing with her son to Scotland. This highly emotional moment is theatrically reinforced here by the heroine being placed at the mercy of the monumental, terrifying and untamed landscape.

Dated 1561, this small work depicts a 16th century French court figure, Princess Marguerite de Valois (1553-1615), done by one of the most prestigious French painters of the time, François Clouet. It was considered one of the greatest works in João Allen’s collection, along with another related painting, the Portrait of Henry II, by the same artist and dated 1559, which is also in the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

Princess Marguerite, who would have been eight years old at the time, is depicted in half-length on a black background, with dark hair combed into fine braids and decorated with pearls. Her dress dominates the composition due to the exuberance and richness of its embroidery.