At the end of the 1820s, under the competition of several years of imported tableware from England, the production of pieces similar in shape and/or decoration to the English ones began, some of which will be presented in the exhibition “Zaffre Blue Tin-Glazed Earthenware From the Miragaia Factory”, to be inaugurated on March 22 at the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

In the 1850s, after financial problems, the factory closed down, completing around 80 years of activity, remaining to this day a symbol of the quality of the earthenware produced in Porto and Gaia.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum preserves a collection of around 180 objects from the Miragaia Factory, as a result of various additions.

Curated by José da Costa Reis, the exhibition “Zaffre Blue Tin-Glazed Earthenware From the Miragaia Factory” explores the theme of ‘zaffre blue’ earthenware, so called because of the shade of the color of its glaze, produced at the Miragaia Factory, in Porto, and dating from 1775 to 1822.

The museological organization of the exhibition promotes the relationship between this collection and other collections at the Soares dos Reis National Museum, valuing its contextualization and interpretation with approaches to history and European plastic arts, namely Painting, Drawing and Engraving.

Located on a small hill on the outskirts of Vila do Conde, with views over the Ave river valley and the city itself, the Santa Clara Convent was included in a support program by Turismo de Portugal, and in 2018 the public tender was launched for its concession, rehabilitation works and operation as a hotel establishment.

With no date yet for the official opening ceremony, the hotel group that won the tender has already announced that the new five-star hotel, The Lince Santa Clara, will open on 22 March.

The convent was founded in 1318 by D. Afonso Sanches, the illegitimate son of King Dinis and his wife D. Teresa Martins, to house noblewomen with few resources. It was donated the following year to the Order of St Clare and functioned as a women’s convent until its extinction in the 19th century. The convent building was partially rebuilt in 1777 and underwent successive alterations until the end of the 20th century.

As part of a vast monumental ensemble, which also includes the Gothic Church of Santa Clara, its cloister and the aqueduct, its volumetry is a neoclassical image of the town and the valley of the River Ave.

The museological organisation of the exhibition promotes the relationship between this collection and other decorative arts collections at the Soares dos Reis National Museum, which precede the modern concept of design, valuing their contextualisation and interpretation with approaches to history and European plastic arts, namely Painting, Drawing and Engraving.

The exhibition and its guide are intended to increase the visibility and knowledge of the ceramics collection at the Soares dos Reis National Museum, one of the most important ceramics collections held by a Portuguese national museum, establishing the relationship between the influences of English culture on the production of the Miragaia Factory.

António Ponte, Director of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, points out that this exhibition allows “the establishment of a dialogue, both programmatic and museographic, between the zaffre earthenware and other objects from the Soares dos Reis National Museum’s collection, reflecting the idea of transversality in the Portuguese decorative and plastic arts of this period”, which is the result of “a will to think of the collections beyond their borders and in accordance with the aspirations and needs of the contemporary visitor”.

The Museum’s ceramics collection currently includes around 4,000 pieces of different types: tiles, designer ceramics, Portuguese and Spanish earthenware (16th to 20th centuries), Chinese and Japanese porcelain (16th to 20th centuries), European porcelain (19th and 20th centuries) and Dutch earthenware from Delft (17th and 18th centuries).

A brief history of the Miragaia Factory in Porto

In the context of the reforms of Portuguese industry promoted by the minister Marquis of Pombal, the Miragaia Factory was founded in Miragaia (Porto) in 1775 by João Rocha (1720-1799), a Minho merchant who had become rich in Brazil. His nephew João Bento da Rocha was a founding partner.

The aim of the entrepreneurs was to manufacture the objects as they were produced in foreign countries, especially China and Europe.

In 1814, after the losses suffered during the French Invasions, the Miragaia Factory was the largest ceramics factory in Porto, with 27 workers, among whom there were numerous family ties, facilitating the transmission of technical and artistic knowledge.

At the end of the 1820s, under the competition of years of imported pottery from England, Miragaia Factory began to produce objects similar in shape and/or decoration to the English ones, some of which are shown in the exhibition Zaffre Blue Tin-Glazed Earthenware From the Miragaia Factory. In the 1850s, after financial problems, the factory closed down, completing around 80 years of activity, remaining to this day a symbol of the quality of the earthenware produced in Porto and Gaia.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum preserves a collection of around 180 pieces from the Miragaia Factory, the result of various incorporations.

Born in Porto, João Marques de Oliveira’s childhood vocation for drawing led him to enter the Academia Portuense de Belas Artes at the age of 11.

In 1873, he left for Paris as a pensionerwith his colleague Silva Porto. In the City of Light, Marques de Oliveira continued his studies at the National School of Fine Arts with professors Alexandre Cabanel and M. Yvon and had the opportunity to make contact with some pictorial movements, such as the naturalism of the Barbizon School and Impressionism, and to make study visits to Holland, Belgium and Italy. His artworks from this period were awarded medals and honourable mentions on several occasions. As his final exam at boarding school, he presented the painting Cephalus and Prochris, which is on display at the Soares dos Reis National Museum’s long-term exhibition.

On their return to Portugal in 1879, at a time of turmoil in Porto’s artistic milieu, dominated by heated debate about academic reform and the teaching of Fine Arts, Oliveira and Silva Porto introduced the practice of open-air painting in Portugal and were named Academicians of Merit of the Portuguese Fine Arts Association. In this context, the Centro Artístico Portuense (Portuense Artistic Centre) emerged in Porto in 1880, an association of artists seeking the progress of the arts in Portugal, just as the Grupo de Leão art movement was promoting in Lisbon, with the participation of Silva Porto. In the first election for the board of this institution, the sculptor Soares dos Reis took over the presidency and Marques de Oliveira the vice-presidency, as well as being a member of the technical council. In this capacity, he organised an acclaimed exhibition entitled “Bazar do Centro Artístico Portuense”, which took place in the former Palácio de Cristal between 27 March and April 1881.

By decree of 26 May 1911, the Academies of Fine Arts gave way to three Councils of Art and Archaeology, with the Oporto District becoming responsible for the Oporto Museum, which was then renamed the Soares dos Reis Museum.

In 1913, he left his position as director of the Porto School of Fine Arts to take over as director of the Soares dos Reis Museum, while retaining his positions on the Council of Art and Archaeology. In 1926 he was forced to give up teaching because he had exceeded the age limit allowed by the new law, but also for health reasons. He died in Porto on 9 October 1927.

On Saturday 23rd, at 4pm, there will be a concert by Síntese – Grupo de Música Contemporânea, presenting a programme dedicated to celebrating Portuguese literature, with particular emphasis on the poetry of Eugénio de Andrade. (Free admission).

The National Day of Historic Centres, created in 1993, is celebrated annually on 28 March, on the date of the birth of Alexandre Herculano, its patron and one of the greatest defenders of national heritage.

Alexandre Herculano is the author of the poem Tristezas do Desterro (Sorrows of Exiled), which inspired António Soares dos Reis to create O Desterrado (The Exiled), the most prominent sculpture in the collection of the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

The date is a reminder of the importance of historic centres as elements of culture and heritage with a high historical value.

The teaching provided at this class was especially aimed at the piloting course, although there were also concerns about the manufacturing industry, which was growing in Porto.

The class was mainly attended by young noblemen, but also by merchants, manufacturers, artists, officers, apprentices and sailors who found there the necessary training to “draw machines and instruments; to draw geographical and topographical maps of countries, plans of cities, ships, etc.”.

The Drawing and Sketching Class functioned at the College for Orphan Boys, under the administration of the Companhia Geral da Agricultura das Vinhas de Alto Douro, until 1802. In that year, it was transferred to the Hospice of the Religious of St Anthony due to the large number of students attending.

Image: Manuel da Silva Godinho (engraving); Teodoro de Sousa Maldonado (drawing), Porto, 1789

Text adapted from SANTOS, Cândido dos – Universidade do Porto: raízes e memória da Instituição. Porto: UP, 1996.

Thanks to this activity, Sequeira was seen as a collaborator of the occupying enemy and was therefore the target of persecution and condemnation proceedings, from which he only rehabilitated himself at great cost.

In this composition, three groups of figures are represented in the foreground, among which Junot stands out in military attire, 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.

The last years of his life were spent in Rome, where he devoted himself mainly to religious paintings.

In addition to the works by Domingos Sequeira included in the long-term exhibition, the Soares dos Reis National Museum is currently hosting the exhibition Teresa Gonçalves Lobo and Domingos Sequeira – a dialogue in time until April 28^th.

Image credits

Cover: Drawing ‘Self-portrait of Domingos António de Sequeira’ (the artist’s first known self-portrait) @Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

His artistic production is based on a small number of themes: the ones he favoured and worked on throughout his career were portraits, landscapes and intimate scenes of everyday domestic life. In addition to her own face, she looked for motifs for her paintings in the family universe, an inexhaustible source of inspiration: people, corners of the house, aspects of the garden, stretches of landscape with the river in the background.

Aurélia de Souza produced one of the landmark works of Portuguese art at the turn of the two centuries: the Self-Portrait from the collection of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, done around 1900. She died in Porto in 1922, aged 55.

Aurélia de Souza is one of the few Portuguese women who has a rightful place in the gallery of the great Portuguese painters of the second half of the 19th century, alongside renowned artists such as Marques de Oliveira, Henrique Pousão and António Carneiro.

Image captions @Soares dos Reis National Museum

Oil on canvas ‘A tigela partida’ (The broken Bowl), by Silva Porto | Oil on canvas ‘Cabeça de rapariga’ (Head of a Girl), by Marques de Oliveira | Oil on paper pasted on wood ‘Cabeça de Velha’ (Head of an Old Woman), by Augusto Roquemont | Oil on canvas ‘Cecília’ (Cecilia), by Henrique Pousão | Oil on wood ‘Costume de campanha romana (Napolitana)’ (Roman Campaign Costume), by Silva Porto | Oil on wood ‘Costume de Capri (Cabeça)’ (Capri Costume), by Silva Porto | Oil on canvas ‘Cuidados de amor’ (Loving care), by José Malhoa | Oil on wood ‘Napolitana’ (Neapolitan), by Marques de Oliveira | Oil on wood ‘Lavadeira’ (Washerwoman), by Artur Loureiro | Oil on wood ‘Raparigas minhotas’ (Minho girls), by Agostinho Salgado | Oil on canvas ‘Figura de Senhora com flores’ (Lady figure with flowers), by João Augusto Ribeiro | Oil on canvas Self-portrait, by Aurélia de Souza

The GEO-SR project aimed to study 35 sculptures by Soares dos Reis in order to fill a deep gap in scientific and technological knowledge regarding the material, conservation and symbolic components of 19th century European geomaterial sculpture.

Led by the Portuguese Catholic University, the project involved the participation of the University of Aveiro (GeoBioTec), the University of Minho (Physics Centre) and the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

Among the authors published in the ECR Magazine, we highlight two senior PhD researchers from the National Museum Soares dos Reis, as well as three sculpture conservator-restorers from the José de Figueiredo Laboratory.

List of the published articles

– António Soares dos Reis and Augustus Saint-Gaudens: an artistic friendship

Thayer Tolles (pages 6-21)

– Soares dos Reis’ plaster models: technical production and the challenge of the conservation and restoration

Elsa Murta, Michèle Portela, Inês Sardinha, Paula Santos (pages 22-41)

– Exploring portable ultrasonic pulse velocity avails in the conservation assessment of plaster sculptures in museum environment

António Mário Almeida, Mário António Pereira, Graça Vasconcelos, Salomé Carvalho, Rui Bordalo, Eduarda Vieira (pages 42-59)

In the new long-term exhibition, the Museum proposes a path with two complementary readings. A first reading, which reflects its history and the way in which the collections were integrated, and in a second reading the artist and their works are valued. The exhibition presents a total of 1133 objects distributed across 27 galleries.

Authored and presented by Paula Moura Pinheiro, “Visita Guiada” tells the History of the Portuguese territory and its relations with the rest of the world through historical, material and immaterial heritage.

‘At the western end of the European continent, the territory that became Portugal around 900 years ago is, naturally, over-exposed to contact with geographies. Evidence of an extensive and complex network of relationships with other peoples and cultures dates back to pre-History and continues to occur: as in any other territory, everything that has occurred and happened in Portuguese territory over time is always, directly or indirectly, linked to other places and other people.

It is this global, integrated reading of History and heritage that Paula Moura Pinheiro seeks from the best researchers in the areas of History, Archaeology, Geography, Arts and Architecture’.  – Produced by RTP2, “Visita Guiada” began broadcasting weekly in 2014.

Specialised in Art Brut, Singular Art and Pop Culture, the French gallery Halle Saint Pierre classifies the estate of the private collectors Richard Treger and António Saint Silvestre as “one of the most important European collections of Art Brut and Singular Art”.

The exhibition is curated by Martine Lusardy, who, having directed Halle Saint Pierre since 1994, recognises the new exhibition – whose title means “The Singular Spirit” – “the magic of an interworld that is at once familiar and unknown”.

Agnès Baillon, Henry Darger, Jacques Deal, Jaime Fernandes, Martha Grünenwaldt, David Houis, Foma Jaremtschuk, Alexander Lobanov, Marilena Pelosi and Adolphe Wölfli are just some of the authors whose work will be showcased at Halle Saint Pierre.

At the Soares dos Reis National Museum, the exhibition “Portreto de la Animo. Art Brut Etc.” allowed to establish a relationship between the two collections, exploring the different ways of representing the human figure and self-representation through art, from personal universes and interior worlds that are so diverse, between canonical formal solutions and others unconventional ones.

The exhibition included several objects from the Soares dos Reis National Museum collection, placed in dialogue with pieces from the Treger Saint Silvestre Collection, such as the Bust-Reliquary of São Pantaleão; the “Death mask of Soares dos Reis”, by Joaquim José Texeira Lopes; the Spittoon, by Rafael Bordallo Pinheiro; and the oil “Mãe e Filha” (Mother and Daughter), by Sarah Afonso; among others.

As part of the “Art & Health” programmatic axis of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, the exhibition was complemented by an extensive program of mediation activities, scientifically supported by the National Coordination of Mental Health Policies, which included commented visits, talks, workshops and performance. During the period in which it was open to the public, it registered a total of 35 thousand visitors.

Props were used as body adornment, amulets, a form of social distinction or a symbol of power. The pair of gold bracelets and the Estela Treasure are important testimonies to the history of goldsmithing and noble metals in Portugal.

These pieces of jewelry prove that metalworking was already mastered in the distant past. Showing contacts with people from Central European and Mediterranean cultures, they reflect the knowledge of decorative forms and techniques, as well as the process of fusing metals that has continued to this day.

Goldwork of the 18th century

The exploration of gold mines and precious stones in Brazil had a strong impact on Portuguese jewelry from the first half of the 18th century, reflecting the luxury and opulence of a wealthy society. The Bodice Ornament, with the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Lisbon, is a remarkable expression of this splendor.

The excessive taste for jewelry was reflected in the diversity of personal adornments for men and women: necklaces, pins and rings, shoe buckles, insignia, among others.

Among the civil and religious silver pieces, national production stands out, with two major centers represented – Porto and Lisbon. Foreign production is represented by craftsmen and workshops from Italy and Germany.

Jewelry and personal accessories

Jewelry and accessories for personal use from the 17th to the 19th century followed the changes in European fashion. In the 19th century, there was a widespread taste for jewelry linked to important moments in personal life and the expression of feelings, such as pendants with miniature portraits as a reminder of a loved one or family event. Rings were worn as mere adornment or as a symbol of authority, love, widowhood or friendship. Religious-themed jewelry could include crucifixes or pendants depicting the Virgin, Christ or saints. Snuff boxes (ground tobacco), some displaying delicate portraits, bear witness to the widespread habit of snuff consumption throughout Europe.

Before joining the studio of Cabanel and Yvon, he visited art galleries and museums in both Paris and Madrid.

That year, he moved to Rome, where he rented a studio and, in 1882, produced significant artworks, also in Naples and Capri. Landscapes with a poetic and vibrant chromaticism, exercises in capturing light, genre paintings such as Cecília, and portraits, such as Senhora Vestida de Preto (Lady in Black), done in Paris, reveal his modernity, unusual in the Portuguese art scene.

At the end of 1883, already ill, he decided to return to Portugal. He traveled via Genoa, passing through Marseille and Barcelona, where he painted “Cais de Barcelona” (pictured opposite).

In March 1884, a few days before his death, he painted “A bouquet of flowers” (top image).

His work reveals the boldness and talent of the young painter and his absolute interest in the values of the painting itself to the detriment of the themes or the narrative. After his premature death, his work was given to the Academia Portuense de Belas Artes.

In the collection of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, Henrique Pousão’s work is strongly represented, especially the paintings “Casas Brancas de Capri” (White Houses of Capri), “Senhora Vestida de Preto” (Lady Dressed in Black) and “Janelas das Persianas Azuis” (Windows with Blue Shutters), all classified as national treasures.

The Baroque as an idea can be better understood through a diptych that confronts two author-architects who were born, one year apart, in the first half of the Baroque century (16th-17th). The rivalry and dispute between the two is historical.

This cycle of two lectures aims to revisit what unites these two adversaries (who respected each other) and whose dispute helped to develop their respective individual architectural expressions and, above all, contributed to the most astonishing critical reconstruction of classical architecture that the Siza Baroque project aims to continue.

Siza Baroque is a research project that aims to highlight the relationship between the idea of Baroque and the work of Álvaro Siza. As a trend in art in general and architecture in particular, the Baroque wants to build a new world on the basis of the old, which it believes is not prepared for the present and the future to come. The links between Álvaro Siza’s architecture and the Baroque are present in various authors who have written about Siza, as well as remaining in the way Siza himself, referring to Porto and Nasoni in written texts, announces his interest and commitment to learning more about Baroque architecture and the city Barrocas.

José Miguel Rodrigues is an architect and full professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto, where he teaches the History of Modern Architecture course and, as part of the PhD program, the Thesis Project course [profile E]. He is co-author of the New Village of Luz project (1995-2002). Since 2011 he has been working on a project to translate the written work of Giorgio Grassi into Portuguese. In 2013, he published his doctoral thesis ‘The Ordered and Accessible World of Architectural Forms’ and in 2020 the book ‘Palladio and the Modern’, which was awarded the FAD prize, thought and criticism (2021). He is currently director of the Center for Architecture and Urbanism Studies at the Faculty of Architecture and coordinator of the T2P research group, being the Lead Researcher of the Siza Barroco project.

Joana Couceiro is an architect with a degree from the University of Coimbra (2005) and a PhD from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (2018). She was a collaborator at aNC arquitectos and at the Pedra Líquida studio, and has co-authored published works. She is co-founder of the architecture publishing house Circo de Ideias (she was part of the management team until 2018) and of Pechakucha Night Porto. At the invitation of Casa da Arquitectura, she curated the V Open House Porto, under the title ‘Inner Life’. Between 2013 and 2021, she was a guest lecturer in the History of Modern Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto. Between 2021 and 2023 she was a researcher at esad-idea and assistant curator of the conference program for the second and third editions of the Porto Design Biennale. She is currently a researcher at the Center for Architecture and Urbanism Studies, where she is developing the Siza Barroco project.

The Carrancas Palace began to be built in 1795. In 1861, the Carrancas Palace was acquired by King Pedro V to become the official residence of the royal family during their visits to the north of the country and was remodeled.

In 1915, it was donated to Misericórdia through the will of King Manuel II, who wanted to build a hospital there, but this never came to happen. Later, the State bought the palace to house the Soares dos Reis National Museum, which had been founded in 1833 and was housed in the Santo António Convent, now the Porto Municipal Public Library.

The Carrancas Palace was again remodeled for its new function and, in 1940, the Soares dos Reis National Museum, the oldest public art museum in Portugal, was inaugurated here.

Between 1992 and 2001, the building underwent a series of major renovations by architect Fernando Távora. Outside, there is a patio with pink walls and tiles that gives way to a garden sheltered by the building’s walls. The green space with lawns gives full prominence to the camellias.

The conservator-restorer is a highly qualified professional who studies interdisciplinary subjects, from chemistry to biology, art history, archaeology and museology. They are responsible for highly complex and responsible tasks and often work in multidisciplinary networks.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum is constantly working in the areas of conservation and restoration, in the context of managing and monitoring the different collections, ongoing training, mentoring trainees and research, carried out in collaboration with universities.

The team of conservator-restorers regularly participates in research projects with the aim of contributing to new studies on conservation and restoration techniques and procedures.

In 2023, 163 works were conserved (115 by the Soares dos Reis Nactional Museum team and 48 by external professionals).

Each visit is accompanied by a talk with the architects and other personalities connected to the spaces, which will give an insider’s view of the process of designing, constructing and restoring the works.

The buildings represent some of the most important recent interventions in the city, from housing to infrastructure, including buildings for education, culture, tourism and municipal services.

All of them are urban landmarks which, revealed and unveiled in this way, are intended to inspire future quality interventions and highlight the high standards we want for the city we inhabit.

All visits are guided by the architects who designed the works and always start at 4pm. At the end of each visit, there will be a talk with a number of personalities linked to the works.

More information here.

Photo credits: Câmara Municipal do Porto @Andreia Merca

Miguel Ângelo Lupi was born in Lisbon on 8 May 1826 to an Italian father and a Portuguese mother. At the age of 15 he entered the Lisbon Academy of Fine Arts. From 1841 to 1843 he was a pupil of Joaquim Rafael in the Historical Drawing class, winning two prizes. A pupil of António Manuel da Fonseca in the Historical Painting class from 1844 to 1846, he left the Academy that year to attend the Polytechnic School.

Between 1849 and 1860 he held various positions as a state official, one of them in the province of Angola. From these years we know of some works that were not very relevant to the painter’s career. In 1859, at the age of 33, he was invited to paint a portrait of King Pedro V for the Lisbon Court of Auditors, where he worked. With the pleasure of the king and the Academy, he obtained a state scholarship to complete his apprenticeship in Rome. Housed in the Hospice of Santo António dos Portugueses from the autumn of 1860 until the end of 1863, he never sought direct instruction from a master.

Interested in studying anatomy, the nude and portraiture, he copied works by Titian, Corregio, Rubens, Andrea del Sartro and Velasquez in small formats. He also works from live models, local scenes and figures and sketches small compositions inspired by literary themes such as Faust and Marguerite. He prepared the historical painting D. João de Portugal as his final proof as a State scholarship holder.

On his return from Rome and then in 1867, he visited Paris. This contact proved crucial in the painter’s formation. Touched by the realist current, particularly the work of Courbet, he introduced new intensity to the analysis and interpretation of the themes he worked on in the future, especially in portraiture. Arriving in Lisbon in 1864, he was immediately appointed Academician of Merit and Professor of Figure Drawing at the Lisbon Academy of Fine Arts, and in 1868 he took up the post of Professor of Historical Painting, which he held until his death on 26 February 1883.

Image Credits
Cover Photo: Occidente Magazine, Volume VI, Nº 153 of 21 March 1883 – Hemeroteca Digital

On his return to Porto, he applied for the position of Professor of Historical Painting at the Academy, where he began a long teaching career, leaving as a retired professor. Author of a vast body of artwork, he distinguished himself above all as a landscape painter, a painter of rustic scenes and an animalist. He was a sober interpreter of portraiture, of which he has a vast gallery.

Acácio Lino dedicated himself to large historical compositions, showing a concern for historical rigour. His favourite themes were the great dramas of Portuguese history: the artist is the author of the famous painting “O Grande Desvairo” (The Great Insanity) (from Porto City Hall), which depicts the tragedy of Pedro and Inês. He decorated the Artillery Museum (1907) and the National Assembly Palace (1921 – 1922). In Porto, in collaboration with José de Brito, he painted the ceiling of the S. João National Theatre.

In Portugal, Acácio Lino exhibited regularly from 1910 at the salons of the Porto Fine Arts Society and others, such as the Silva Porto Salon, receiving the Gold Medal for Artistic Merit from the City Council. In Lisbon, he won the Medal of Honour at the National Fine Arts Society, exhibiting “Moleirinhas da Minha Aldeia” and was consequently appointed professor at the National Academy of Fine Arts. The artist also received the Commendation of the Order of Santiago de Espada. In 1943, the National Society of Fine Arts organised an exhibition in his honour. Acácio Lino died in Porto in 1956.

Images
Arrancada (Snatch), Acácio Lino, 1928 @Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis
Palhaços Músicos (Musical Clowns), Acácio Lino, 1903 @Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis

He then spent a year in Paris, where he studied with the famous sculptor François Jouffroy and, on his return, devoted himself intensely to ceramics. At the Ceramics Factory of Devesas, of which he was the founder, partner and main artist, he created a drawing and modelling course, which eventually gave rise to the Passos Manuel Industrial School in Vila Nova de Gaia.

His numerous works include the statue of Passos Manuel in Matosinhos, the statue of King Pedro V in Porto’s Praça da Batalha; the Baptism of Christ relief in bronze in the baptistery of Porto Cathedral, with the original plaster cast in the Igreja Matriz de S. Mamede de Ribatua; the Ponte das Barcas disaster, which took place in 1809; the statues “União faz a força” (“Unity makes strength”), “Filho pródigo” (“Prodigal Son”), “Caridade” (“Charity”), “Conde Ferreira” (“Count of Ferreira”), and various allegorical statues.

José Joaquim Teixeira Lopes (father of sculptor António Teixeira Lopes and architect José Teixeira Lopes) was also a tile painter and creator of dozens of painted terracotta figures depicting regional figures and customs. Given the large number of artists he taught or who worked with him, Teixeira Lopes (Father) was one of the most influential art figures in Portugal during the Romantic period.

He was honoured with the Order of Christ, a decoration awarded to him by King Luís, and won several prizes in national and international exhibitions. José Joaquim Teixeira Lopes died in 1918 in Vila Nova de Gaia and is buried in the family chapel in his hometown.

He was a creative ceramist and an innovative pedagogue, rightly regarded as the first promoter of the “Gaia School” of sculpture.

Photo @Reserved Rights

Pedro Adão e Silva said that the visit was motivated by his “interest and curiosity in seeing this particular exhibition [“Teresa Gonçalves Lobo and Domingos Sequeira: a dialogue in time”], because it corresponds to what a museum should stand for. In other words, the possibility of opening up and crossing paths between the collections that belong to the museum and the dialogue with what is currently being done on an artistic level.”

Considering that museums should not be seen as a kind of ‘dead archive’, where various pieces of historical interest are deposited, the Minister of Culture stressed the need to “stimulate the capacity for openness and dialogue [of museum collections] with contemporary art, in this particular case, the visual arts”, adding that “this dialogue and crossover is fundamental for museums to open up to society”, thus winning over new audiences.

Teresa Gonçalves Lobo (Funchal, 1968), whose career began more than two decades ago, focused from the outset on drawing as an expressive field in which she has developed remarkable research. She is represented in various private and institutional collections in Portugal and abroad.

Domingos Sequeira (Lisbon, 1768 – Rome, 1837), considered by some to be the most talented and original Portuguese painter of his time, played a fundamental role in the development of Portuguese art in the early 19th century.

The temporary exhibitions “Teresa Gonçalves Lobo and Domingos Sequeira: a dialogue in time” and “Landscape” will be open to the public at the Soares dos Reis National Museum until 28 April.

He earned the epithet of Père Ingres for the obsessive concern and rigour of the drawing he used in painting, after the numerous studies and sketches he applied himself to. In his “cold and literary” compositions, historical themes stand out, such as “The Departure of Vasco da Gama for India” and “The Oath of Viriato”, as well as the most interesting biblical themes, good examples of which are “Christ in the Tomb” and “The Christian Martyr”, exhibited in Paris at the Salons of 1879 and 1880.

Acquired shortly afterwards for the Museu Municipal do Porto, the painting was exhibited in Madrid at the 1881 Exposition of Fine Arts.

In Porto, as well as exhibiting at the Triennials of the Portuguese Fine Arts Association (1869, 1874, 1881), he took part in the Art Exhibitions of 1888, 1889, 1893 and 1894. His works appeared regularly in the best-known exhibitions held in the city in 1917, 1927, 1932, 1933 and 1936.

Another facet of his personality was that of a passionate collector, filling his house with a large and interesting collection of pieces, which was transformed into the Vitorino Ribeiro House-Museum thanks to the donation made by his sons, Pedro Vitorino and Emanuel Ribeiro, to Porto City Council.

José Augusto França included him in the second wave of Portuguese modernism, along with Mário Eloy and Júlio Reis Pereira. There is a spontaneity in Dominguez Alvarez’s paintings that results in an apparently naive composition of shapes and colours.

Fernando Lanhas characterised the artist’s production in different phases. In the red phase, which began in 1927, Dominguez Alvarez used intense, understated colours, while at the same time depicting a primary, urban landscape, such as the painting Aspecto da Sé do Porto (View of Sé do Porto) and the “factories” series.

In another phase, after a few inconsequential forays into abstraction, while maintaining the same colour, he returned to landscaping, with more technical maturity, returning to Porto and northern landscapes such as S. João da Ribeira in Ponte de Lima.

In 1936, Dominguez Alvarez held his only solo exhibition at the Silva Porto Salon. Two years later, his artwork was rejected at the Third Exhibition of Modern Art organised by the National Propaganda Secretariat, but was then accepted for the following year’s exhibition.

In 1942, months after his death, the first retrospective exhibition of his work was held, once again at the Salão Silva Porto, organised, among others, by his father and the painters Guilherme Camarinha and Dórdio Gomes and under the aegis of the Instituto de Alta Cultura, in which around 300 of his works were exhibited, without selection or criteria, and which was repeated the following year in Lisbon, at the Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes.

In the 1950s, various events brought his figure as a nonconformist and loner and the Alvarez Gallery was opened in honour of Jaime Isidoro and António Sampaio. In the 1980s, around the centenary of his birth, various events sought to position him in modern Portuguese art. For example, the magazine “Prelo”, published by the Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda, dedicated an issue to him and in 1987 the Secretary of State for Culture organised a retrospective exhibition of his work in Lisbon and Porto.

Photo: Paintings by José Dominguez Alvarez in the long-term exhibition at the Soares dos Reis National Museum

Cover photo: Self-portrait by José Dominguez Alvarez, oil on cardboard, undated @Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian

On his return to Portugal, he brought a collection of paintings with which he created a museum in the Tibães Monastery (dispersed after 1834 and which became part of the Museu Portuense, now the Soares dos Reis National Museum), relics of the virgin and martyr Santa Clara, deposited in the church of Terço (1798) and later transferred (1803) to the chapel of Bonfim, and three books of drawings by him, two of which now belong to the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto and the other to the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

In the post-Roman period, he produced the paintings for the high choir of the parish church of Santo Tirso, the canvas for the dressing room of the high altar of the church of the Venerable Third Order of S. Francisco in Porto (c. 1800), the canvas for the high altar of the parish church of S. João da Foz in Porto, paintings for the monasteries of S. João da Pendorada and Santa Maria de Pombeiro, and possibly two canvases for the monastery of S. Lourenço in Porto. João de Pendorada and Santa Maria de Pombeiro monasteries, possibly two canvases for the Porto church of S. Lourenço which are now kept in the Soares dos Reis National Museum (“S. Pedro showing the Eucharist” and “O Maná”), the portrait and self-portrait (Soares dos Reis National Museum) and a portrait of the painter Francisco Vieira, the Portuense.

Towards the end of his life, he applied to rejoin the Benedictine order. However, death surprised him on 6 November 1810. He was buried the following day in a shallow grave with the number 18 on the cross of the church of the Monastery of S. Bento da Vitória in Porto. José Teixeira Barreto left a valuable legacy, made up of his pictorial work and the paintings he collected.

Documentary source

In 1965, 1967 and 1968 he took part in group exhibitions in Porto, Amarante and Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro, Brussels, Paris, Madrid and Luanda.

Some of his artworks are in private collections in Portugal and abroad and can also be seen in the Soares dos Reis National Museum (Porto), the Chiado Museum, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Museum (both in Lisbon) and the Museum of Modern Art (São Paulo).

Lagoa Henriques is represented in the Soares dos Reis National Museum’s long-term exhibition with Cabeça de Rapariga (Head of a Girl), dated 1953 (pictured). This is a portrait of a girl, cast in bronze and fixed to a cylindrical granite base. Front pose, smooth-skinned face, well-defined contours of the mouth, correct nose and eyes facing the viewer, outlined by thin eyebrows. There appears to be a small beret on his head and his hair, cut at chin height, is styled in two tufts, seen from the front.

A master and motivator of successive generations of artistic creators, Lagoa Henriques is responsible for the sculpture depicting the poet Fernando Pessoa on the terrace of the Café Brasileira in Lisbon’s Chiado district. He was also the author of notable drawings and sculptures, a poet, lecturer and collector of items as diverse as paintings, shells, books and tree trunks.

The aim is also to encourage students’ knowledge of and interest in various artistic and cultural expressions; to illustrate different visions of art and culture on themes of medicine and the life and health sciences and to promote new and diversified readings of the collections of the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

For the Director of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, António Ponte, this initiative “reinforces the institutional partnership with the Institute of Porto University, following on from the activity carried out in 2021/2022. As part of the “Other Places” programme, based on the Four Seasons allegory, the Soares dos Reis National Museum brought a series of four 17th century paintings to the Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute, which establishes a relationship with the different stages of the human being’s life. We are now opening the doors of the Museum to welcome the entire community for a cycle of visits that will certainly open up new horizons.”

Allowing cross-fertilisation between art and medicine, the cycle of visits now on offer will make it possible to see how art and science, two areas of knowledge often seen as distinct, can be allied and contribute to a better quality of life.

For the Director of Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute, Henrique Cyrne Carvalho, this is a proposal that “seeks to give continuity to a project that began in 2021, when we opened the doors to the Museum for the ‘Cycle of Life’ painting exhibition, but it is also the reaffirmation of our vision for an integrated and broad training of our students, where art plays a fundamental role in their development as professionals and as people”.

‘Fountains and Fountains – water and the city’, ‘Man, Animals and the Environment – from work, companionship to subsistence’; ‘Soares dos Reis and the Relation to Human Anatomy’, ‘Between Journeys, Portuguese and Genes’ are the themes of the visits to be made during the months of March and April.

Eugénio Moreira was born in Porto in 1871. He attended the Oporto Medical and Surgical School (1892-1895) and then transferred to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Coimbra. In this city he socialised with the Boémia Nova group, maintaining friendly relations with the Porto writers António Nobre (1867-1900), Alberto de Oliveira (1873-1940) and, in particular, with Agostinho de Campos (1870-1944). He returned to Porto without having finished his degree, enrolling at the Academia Portuense de Belas Artes, where he never graduated.

He lived in Paris for a few years, where he attended the Julien Academy and the Décluse Academy. He was a disciple of Jean Paul Laurens (1838-1921) and Benjamin Constant (1845-1902) and was influenced by painters from the Impressionist, Fauvist and Nabis movements. He visited Italian museums and temples, recording his impressions in travel guides.

Back in Portugal, he studied Portuguese landscapes and figures. He travelled through Minho, especially the Vila Praia de Âncora area, and Vale de Penacova in Beira, stopping off in the lands of the Mondego. In 1907 he exhibited at the studio of the sculptor Fernandes de Sá, his friend.

In 1955, Abel Salazar referred to the painter in this way: “Eugénio Moreira, the unsuccessful author of “Vale de Penacova” is, with Henrique Pousão, the greatest of Portuguese landscape painters. Between the two there are differences in quality, not in value: they are two visions, but equally elevated.”

Documentary source

Wine & Travel Week, a gathering that brings together professionals from all over the world, counts in this second edition with a delegation of over 100 buyers and specialized journalists in enotourism, joined by members from the capitals of the world’s major wine regions, the Great Wine Capitals (GWC). South Africa, Spain, France, India, England, Israel, Japan, Nigeria, and Portugal are some of the countries represented.

Among the event’s many parallel activities, the lunch on February 20^th stands out, crafted by chef Rui Paula (holder of two Michelin stars at the Casa de Chá – Paço da Boa Nova restaurant), to be served at the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

It’s important to emphasise that, for the first time, Wine &Travel Week will have a guest region: Castile and León (Spain), which will take advantage of its presence at the initiative to stage the world premiere of the show “Merina: the Spanish gold. Oteiza”. The stage will be the Coliseum of Porto, in the late afternoon of February 20^th.

Wine & Travel Week is an organisation of Essência Company.

In 1913 he took part in the Salon of French Artists and held his first solo exhibition in Porto. In 1915 he took part in the 1st Porto Humourists’ Salon, with drawings signed under the pseudonym “Maria Clara”.

In the following years, he divided his activities between Porto, Lisbon and Paris and, in 1921, settled in the French capital. This phase was marked by an intense social life and professional activity, sculpting, writing and organising exhibitions.

His Parisian phase includes the sculptural group L’Adieu ou Le pardon (1920), a gestural static work that combines a neo-romantic sensibility and a symbolist connotation with a cosmopolitan and modern formal and plastic dimension.

In 1926 he settled in Lisbon and in 1930 published his first work (14, Cité Falguière, memórias dos tempos de Paris). In the following years he continued to produce art, responding to private and official commissions.

In 1941, now widowed, he gave up sculpture and devoted himself to literary activity. He published biographies of artists, studies, booklets and prefaces to exhibition catalogues.

In 1944 he was invited to head the National Museum of Contemporary Art, a post he held until the end of his life. In 1946 he remarried and, two years later, he was commissioned by the Ministry of the Colonies to direct and accompany a travelling art exhibition in Angola and Mozambique.

In the 1950s, he was invited to organise the classification of properties of public interest, an activity he continued alongside participating in art exhibitions and writing reviews and essays on art and museology.

Source: National Museum of Contemporary Art in Chiado

Photo: Sculpture Cabeça de Rapaz (Head of a boy), by Diogo de Macedo, collection of the Soares dos Reis National Museum

Cover Photo: Diogo de Macedo @Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian