‘Descent from the Cross’, a sacred painting dating from 1827, is part of a group of four late paintings by Domingos Sequeira, executed in Rome, where the artist died in 1837.

Domingos Sequeira is considered to be the most talented and original Portuguese painter of his time, having played a fundamental role in the development of Portuguese art in the early 19th century.

Photo credits: MMP/MNSR © Rui Pinheiro

As part of the International Museum Day programme, a public talk was held yesterday evening on the possible similarities between Portuguese and Spanish artists of Naturalism, focusing on the collections of each of the museums represented.

Moderated by António Ponte, Director of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, the conversation included the participation of the Director of the MUBAG, who presented the contents and exhibition programmes, and the technicians María José Gadea Capó and María Gazabat Barbado, who held a dialogue with Ana Paula Machado, Manager of the Soares dos Reis National Museum’s Painting Collection.

By the end of the year, a delegation from the Portuguese Museum will visit MUBAG to strengthen exchange commitments and co-operation projects.

Juan de Dios Navarro considered this trip to the Soares dos Reis National Museum to be “a fundamental action for culture to transcend borders, and to start collaborating and getting to know both museums, which from this meeting are twinned and committed to future projects”.

For António Ponte, Director of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, the exchange with MUBAG consolidates the museum’s internationalisation strategy, adding that there will be exhibitions and exchange initiatives based on the museums’ respective collections.

As the Romantic period was characterised by a focus on introspection and an appreciation of emotions, it proved to be a favourable time for renewed critical analysis in the arts, particularly in the pursuit of the Gothic, from which new ideas emerged that have continually evolved to the present day.

Maria Carolina da Silva Rocha, a 4th year Communication Design student at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, also collaborated in the exhibition.

The exhibition opens on 18 May and will be open to the public until 30 June.

According to the well-established principle of causality, we tend to believe that past events influence the present. Applied to Art History, this emphasizes the authority that past masters exert over later artists.

In this lecture we will argue that, on the contrary, it is the present that influences the past, acting retroactively on it. We will therefore try to reveal this interested retroactivity of art and architecture, particularly “modern” art and architecture, which, in order to assert – precisely – their paradoxical modernity, have invoked all kinds of memorable origins and built all kinds of genealogies. Origins as prestigious as they are uncertain – as apparently noble as they are conveniently imaginary – suspended in a Time without time and a History without history. The “theory of suspicion” will be our beginning. And Benjamin’s affirmation of modernity as “the epoch of hell” will be our motto.

Juan José Lahuerta is Professor of Art History at the Barcelona School of Architecture. He has taught at universities such as the IUAV in Venice and New York University, among others. He was curator of the Picasso Museum in Barcelona and head of collections at the National Art Museum of Catalonia. His latest books include Religious Painting. Picasso and Max Von Moos (2015); Marginalia. Aby Warburg, Carl Einstein (2015); Photography or Life: Popular Mies (2015); On Loos, Ornament, and Crime (2015); Antoni Gaudí. Fuego y cenizas (2016) and Arte en la época del infierno (2022). He has curated exhibitions such as Picasso. Románico (MNAC, Barcelona, in collaboration with the Musée Picasso, Paris, 2015); Gaudí (MNAC, Barcelona and Musée d’Orsay, Paris, 2022) and Julio González. Being an Artist (IVAM, Valencia, 2023). He is a member of the scientific board of Casabella (Milan) and founding director of the Mudito & Co publishing house (Barcelona, New York, Venice).

Scientific Research and Technological Development Project on the Architecture of Álvaro Siza Vieira FCT: SIZA/CPT/0021/2019

Funded by:

Foundation for Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education; Ministry of Culture; Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto; Centre for Architecture and Urbanism Studies.

Supported by:

Soares dos Reis National Museum; Serralves Foundation; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation; CCA; Drawing Matter; Casa da Arquitectura; Marques da Silva Foundation, Irmandade dos Clérigos and Conservatório de Música do Porto.

Francisco Vieira settled in London from 1789, where he met the famous painter Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) and the engraver Francesco Bartolozzi (1725-1815). During his stay in London, he took part in the 1798 and 1799 editions of the Royal Academy of Arts Exhibition, was commissioned to paint the new church of the Venerable Third Order of St Francis of Porto and presented Bodoni with the project of publishing a work on Camões.

In 1800, after his return to Portugal, he was hired by the Board of Directors of the Companhia Geral de Agricultura e das Vinhas do Alto Douro to teach drawing at the Royal Academy of Marine and Commerce in Porto.

Between 1801 and 1802 he worked in Lisbon on the illustrations for an edition of “Os Lusíadas”, promoted by Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho (1801-1802). On 1 July 1803, Francisco Vieira was appointed director of the Royal Academy of Marine and Commerce in Porto.

Vieira Portuense, as Francisco Vieira became known to distinguish himself from Vieira Lusitano, was the most travelled of the Portuguese artists of his time, studying in Europe where he experienced masterpieces of great masters and the most important artists and patrons. A cultured and multilingual man, Francisco Vieira returned to Portugal to share with Domingos Sequeira the status of painter to Regent João VI.

He is represented in the long-term exhibition at the Soares dos Reis National Museum, where we highlight the Escape of Margaret of Anjou (pictured), painted by Francisco Vieira Portuense during the time he lived in London. It was presented at the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition in 1798 and was inspired by David Hume’s History of England, published between 1754 and 1762.

The episode depicted took place during the War of the Two Roses (1455 – 1485), which pitted the families of Lancaster and York against each other in the dispute for the throne of England. The scene depicts a moment when Queen Margaret of Anjou fled with her son Edward to Scotland. This is perhaps the most emotional moment in the entire plot, reinforced here by the positioning of the figures at the mercy of a monumental landscape.

Bibliographic source

The painting was bought on 10 March as part of the TEFAF art and antiques fair in Maastricht, in close cooperation with the public company Museus e Monumentos de Portugal, with which the Livraria Lello Foundation has signed a commitment for the public enjoyment of the artwork.

‘Descent from the Cross’, a sacred painting dating from 1827, is part of a group of four late paintings by Domingos Sequeira, painted in Rome, where the artist died in 1837.

Domingos Sequeira is considered to be the most talented and original Portuguese painter of his time, having played a fundamental role in the development of Portuguese art at the beginning of the 19th century.

The son of a boatman and born into a poor family in 1768, Domingos Sequeira was educated at Casa Pia, where he attended the Drawing and Figure course.

With a royal grant from King Maria I, he received painting and drawing lessons from Antonio Cavallucci in Rome. On his return to Lisbon, he was appointed court painter by the future King João VI and was co-responsible for the painting of the Ajuda Palace. He also taught drawing and painting to the Royal Family and, in 1806, directed the class at the Marine Academy in Porto.

In the context of the French invasions, Domingos Sequeira established friendships with Napoleonic army officers, 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. The oil on canvas Junot protecting the city of Lisbon dates from 1808 and is in the collection of the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

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 was only rehabilitated at great cost. The last years of his life were spent in Rome, where he devoted himself mainly to religious painting.

Long-term Exhibition

With a history spanning almost 200 years, this exhibition begins a new era in the museum’s history. It is taking on a distinctive and critical repositioning that is manifested in a new look at its collections.

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Temporary Exbitions

Zaffre Blue Tin-Glazed Earthenware From the Miragaia Factory

Sound installation ECO ( ) LAPSO

In addition to the sound material from various audio recordings of 25 April 1974, Sonoscopia and a wide range of artists made field recordings throughout Portugal 50 years later, in order to create a sound map, making a temporal counterpoint.

ECO ( ) LAPSO is the result of an invitation from the Soares dos Reis National Museum to Sonoscopia to create an exhibition on the theme of ‘Freedom and Transgressions’, which will run through the Museum’s entire programme in 2024.

Henrique Fernandes is a founding member of Sonoscopia, an association for the creation, production and promotion of artistic and educational projects, centred on experimental music, sound research and its transdisciplinary intersections.

Curated by Rui Pinheiro, this project has the patronage support of Millennium bcp and Lusitânia Seguros.

Opening 11 May | 6 pm | Free admission

Parallel programme

27 June (Thursday), 18h00
Meeting with artists from the ECO ( ) LAPSO project

27 July (Saturday), 18h00
Concert/Performance with artists from the ECO ( ) LAPSO project

The bequest includes artworks by Abel Salazar, Alvarez, Ana Jotta, Ana Vidigal, António Carneiro, António Palolo, Artur Loureiro, Ayres de Gouveia, Cargaleiro, Cruzeiro Seixas, Eduardo Luiz, Ernesto Condeixa, Francisco José de Resende, Fernanda Fragateiro, Francisco Smith, Jorge Queirós, Júlio, Júlio Resende, Mário Botas, Marques de Oliveira, Nikias Skapinakis, Paula Rego, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Pedro Portugal, Sá Nogueira, Sousa Pinto, etc.

Hundreds of objects have now been incorporated into the Museum’s collection and, after a period of study and technical treatment, will be available in the long-term exhibitions and temporary exhibitions of various kinds.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum is deeply grateful to the donators, believing that this gesture of generosity in favour of the community may also stimulate other donations from private collections.

In the first edition, in 2024, under the theme Contemporary Jewellery and curated by Inês Nunes, the artistic community is challenged to develop creative and innovative proposals for contemporary jewellery in close relation to selected works from the Museum’s collection. The result of these participations will then be presented in an annual exhibition that will demonstrate the affinities between the Museum’s piece and the creations of the various artists.

Rui Lopes Ferreira, CEO of the Super Bock Group, said: “Supporting culture and the arts is a strong commitment of the Super Bock Group, one that we have had for many years, certain of its importance for the development of stronger and more prosperous societies. We do this by favouring close relationships that benefit the communities in which we operate, the quality of the projects themselves and the credibility of the institutions responsible for them.”

For António Ponte, Director of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, this project consolidates the strategic action of activating the Museum’s relationship with its ‘Neighbours’, closing the proximity perimeter: “After the partnership actions already carried out with the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de Santo António (Santo António Hospital, Centro Materno Infantil do Norte Albino Aroso and Centro Integrado de Cirurgia de Ambulatório), as well as with ICBAS – Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar, the ‘Affinities’ project will make it possible to strengthen the connection to the Bombarda Quarter, energising and stimulating the creativity of the artists installed there around the collections that make up the Soares dos Reis National Museum’s holdings.”

The Siza Baroque programme will run throughout the year with the participation of the project’s researchers and their consultants. It also includes an exhibition at the Soares dos Reis National Museum and a closing concert, with a ‘baroque-contemporary’ composition (like Siza’s work), at the Clérigos Church in Porto.

For Álvaro Siza, “architecture is continuity and transformation. Starting with thought and gaze, with the material that comes from the pencil, it combines an attempt to understand our universe from a small partial order, in order to improve it later.

The idea of the project as continuity calls for an understanding that the project is linked to events that took place before and will continue long afterwards. The architect designs between times, merges his gestures with the environment, accommodating them, always aspiring for his projects to qualify places.

This continuity between the project and the place, which is born when the drawing begins to decipher its keys, can be extended to the continuity of the drawing itself, from the first visit to the place to the construction process, to this continuous drawing and, in reciprocity, to the hand that moves as the earth would like to move with the projects. In a reflection written about Aalto, Siza indicated that we should “include everything in the drawing”, “take everything as a stimulus”, alluding to the desire for everything to eventually find its place in the project”.

“Siza and Picasso” @Photography by Fernando Guerra

Scientific Research and Technological Development Project on the Architecture of Álvaro Siza Vieira FCT: SIZA/CPT/0021/2019

Funded by:

Foundation for Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education; Ministry of Culture; Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto; Centre for Architecture and Urbanism Studies.

Supported by:

Soares dos Reis National Museum; Serralves Foundation; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation; CCA; Drawing Matter; Casa da Arquitectura; Marques da Silva Foundation, Irmandade dos Clérigos and Conservatório de Música do Porto.

José Malhoa divided his life between Lisbon and Figueiró dos Vinhos, where he lived in a house better known as cocoon of Malhoa.

Disapproved twice for the State scholarship in Paris, he temporarily abandoned painting until, in 1881, the painting A Seara Invadida em Madrid (The Invaded Harvest in Madrid) gained him critical appreciation.

As one of the founders of Grupo do Leão, he joined the Naturalist movement generated around Silva Porto. He exhibited at the Sociedade Promotora de Belas-Artes (1880, 1884, 1887), the Grupo do Leão (1881 to 1889), the Grémio Artístico (1891 to 1899) and, since 1901, he was a regular presence in the salons of the National Society of Fine Arts. He received the Medal of Honor (1903) and several First Medals from this Society and was elected its President in 1918.

Image
Self-portrait of José Malhoa (1928) @Museu José Malhoa

This group included the art critic Fernando Pernes and the curator Etheline Rosas who, from 1976, directed the activities of the Contemporary Art Centre.

In four years, various cultural activities were organised and around 100 exhibitions were presented, including important retrospective exhibitions by artists such as António Pedro, Júlio dos Reis Pereira, Augusto Gomes, Júlio Resende, Alberto Carneiro and Ângelo de Sousa.

Photo credits @Manuel Magalhães

In Paris, until 1870, he attended the Imperial School of Fine Arts and the lessons of Professor François Jouffroy (1806-1882). In 1872, he returned to Portugal because of the Franco-Prussian War, after joining a student battalion. From Lisbon he travelled to Rome, where he came into contact with various sculpture collections and met António Soares dos Reis.

Soares dos Reis is also the author of the Portrait of Simões de Almeida (pictured), which belongs to the collection of the Soares dos Reis National Museum. This medallion was cast in bronze in 1940 by the Centenary Executive Committee, reproducing the original plaster model dated 1884.

Simões de Almeida taught drawing and sculpture at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts for 31 years, where he trained several generations of artists. He was also acting director of the National Museum of Ancient Art between 9 March and 5 July 1905.

Source: PEREIRA, José Fernandes (dir.) – Dicionário de escultura portuguesa. Lisbon : Caminho, 2005.

This 26th issue of Revista MVSEV features a series of articles on different historical periods, with the main emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. We highlight the articles “Soares dos Reis National Museum – 190 years and the moment of renewal. The curatorship of a long-term exhibition as an integral strategy for the Museum”, written by the Director of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, António Ponte, and “A pair of incense burner form Miragaia Factory. Note on a donation to the Soares dos Reis National Museum”, by José da Costa Reis, Collection Manager at the Museum.

With a total of 294 pages, the magazine also includes articles by Luís Cabral, Mário Bruno Pastor, Maria de São José Pinto Leite and Joana Andresen Guedes, among others.

The painter António Carneiro is one of the biggest names in painting and drawing in Portugal and is represented in the collection of the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

Last year, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth, the Soares dos Reis National Museum (in partnership with the Faculty of Letters of the University of Porto) dedicated a temporary exhibition to him.

Part of the collaborative travelling project Outros lugares (Other Places), the temporary exhibition Desenhos de António Carneiro para o Inferno de Dante (Drawings by António Carneiro for Dante’s Inferno ) was shown at Casa dos Livros, a newly created space in the city of Porto, and more recently at the Lionesa Business Hub.

Forty-two drawings by António Carneiro, which are in the Soares dos Reis National Museum and reveal the best of his talent as a visionary poet, were produced to illustrate Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy Inferno.

Painter, professor at the Porto School of Fine Arts, artistic director of the magazine Águia and linked to the Portuguese Renaissance movement, António Teixeira Carneiro was a notable figure in northern culture. He was born in 1872 in Amarante and died in 1930 in Porto.

He was a disciple of Soares dos Reis and Marques de Oliveira at the Academia Portuense de Belas-Artes.

Image Credits: @Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis (433 Pin Dep/ MNSR)

The study will be presented by Hermano Rodrigues, principal of EY – Parthenon, followed by a round table discussion with Pedro Sousa Rodrigues, advisor to the board of directors of AICEP (Portuguese Trade & Investment Agency), the general director of APICCAPS (Portuguese Association of Footwear, Components, Leather Goods and Leather Goods Manufacturers), João Maia, and the director of UPTEC (Business and Innovation Hub), Maria Moura Oliveira.

Created by InvestPorto, Porto Leading Investors is an investment project management programme dedicated to investors and companies with a high strategic interest and impact on Porto’s economy.

Porto’s strategy for attracting foreign direct investment has been recognised for three consecutive years by the Financial Times’ fDi Intelligence magazine, which ranks the city among the top European Cities and Regions of the Future.

Credits: Porto City Council

In 2024, the theme will be contemporary jewellery, with the artist Inês Nunes as Curator. The active artistic community will thus be called upon to develop creative and innovative proposals for contemporary jewellery in close relation to selected artworks from the Soares dos Reis National Museum’s collection. The result of these participations will then be presented in an annual exhibition that demonstrates the “affinities” between the objects in the Museum and the creations of the various artists, which will include a parallel programme of talks and workshops related to the theme.

The project is being developed by the Soares dos Reis National Museum in partnership with Porto Art District, with the patronage support of the Super Bock Group, as well as the support of the Dr José de Figueiredo Group – Friends of the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

Soares dos Reis National Museum

The Soares dos Reis National Museum has its origins in the Museum of Paintings and Prints and other Fine Arts objects, created in 1833 by King Pedro IV of Portugal. Known as the Museu Portuense, it was housed in the extinct Santo António da Cidade Convent, in Praça de S. Lázaro.

In 1839, it passed to the management of the Academia Portuense de Belas Artes and, with the proclamation of the Republic, was renamed the Soares dos Reis Museum in memory of one of the most outstanding names in Portuguese art.

In 1932, it was renamed the National Museum and, in 1940, the museum was installed in the Carrancas Palace, where it still remains.

Porto Art District

Porto Art District is an association for the local development of the area known as Bombarda, in Porto. Its mission is to coordinate the actions of the local community and the sharing of resources to improve life in this quarter, ensuring the combination of its many dimensions: Social, Cultural, Environmental, Urban and Economic.

For nearly three decades, the Porto Art District has been an epicentre of business and creatives, boosted by the concentration of contemporary art galleries. Bombarda is currently home to more than 178 establishments in the areas of commerce, media and leisure services, culture and entertainment.

Inês Nunes

Inês Nunes, 1979. Portuguese, lives and works in Lisbon. Artist and teacher. Graduated in Psychological Sciences – Ispa. She completed the Jewellery Course, the Advanced Plastic Arts Course – Ar.Co, where she was a student, scholarship holder and teacher in the Jewellery Department, the Artistic Training Course in Drawing – National Society of Fine Arts. She studied Textile Art and Design at the António Arroio Art School and is a lecturer on the Artistic Production, Design and Technology Course – Jewellery Specialisation.
Nationally and internationally, she develops her artistic work in the areas of Art, Design, Art Psychology and Fashion. She has always collaborated actively in numerous events, actions and projects linked to her activities – From Pedagogy to Exhibitions. Through the invitations and challenges presented to her, she takes part in specific collaborations with both individuals and companies. She provides consultancy and management services for artistic projects and has been invited to give talks and presentations on her work, in which she experiments and explores her expressive knowledge of contemporary jewellery as a multidisciplinary and artistic area.

The building was the scene of major events in the city in the first half of the 19th century, such as the French Invasions and the Siege of Porto, and from 1861 it was the residence of the royal family in Porto.

The Carrancas Palace began to be built in 1795 as the home and factory of the Moraes e Castro family, owners of the Gold and Silver Yarn Factory, in Rua dos Carrancas. The Palace’s name dates back precisely to the former location of this wealthy Porto business family.

Although it has been reused in different ways over the years, the original design remains the same, and does not stray too far from the original project, attributed to Joaquim da Costa Lima Sampaio. The Palácio dos Carrancas is part of the neoclassical trend that would mark Porto’s civil architecture at the end of the 18th century with the construction of the Hospital de Santo António, progressing significantly into the 19th century with buildings such as the Alfândega Nova, among others.

International Monuments and Sites Day was created by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) on 18 April 1982, and approved by UNESCO the following year, with the aim of raising awareness of the diversity and vulnerability of heritage, as well as the need for its protection and enhancement.

By celebrating our national heritage, we are also commemorating international solidarity around the knowledge, safeguarding and valorisation of heritage around the world.

In 2024, the theme proposed by ICOMOS International is “Disasters and conflicts in the light of the Venice Charter”, which proposes a look at the past, as a way of reflecting on shared heritage and the challenges facing us today and in the future.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum seeks to provide opportunities for new readings and new narratives, always valuing the cultural heritage it integrates and honouring the history to which it is heir.

The renewed long-term exhibition thus provides an overview of the Soares dos Reis National Museum in a narrative journey that intertwines with its history and the way the collections have been integrated, as well as with the artists represented here and their artworks.

Since its reopening, the Soares dos Reis National Museum has totalled around 86,000 visitors (60% national and 40% foreign), promoted eight temporary exhibitions and held around 700 mediation activities (visits, workshops, commented sessions, among others).

The Soares dos Reis National Museum is a leading cultural and artistic institution with an international collection, and a strategic action is underway to affirm the Museum as a place for constructing meaning from its collections, a place of belonging and identity, promoting reflection, creativity and contemporary critical thinking.

The Museum’s approach to the community has been consolidated through partnerships with external entities that are part of the cultural and social fabric of the city of Porto, allowing for community outreach activities, such as the ‘Other Places’, ‘Art & Health’ and ‘Neighbours’ programmes.

Over the last year, the Museum has managed to gather the support of several patrons, including the permanent support of the Dr José de Figueiredo Group – Friends of the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

Sá Lemos wrote a short but significant article full of tenderness and admiration for his grandfather Teixeira Lopes (Father), which is an essential testimony from someone who was close to him and witnessed his work.

José Joaquim Teixeira Lopes (1837-1918), also known as Teixeira Lopes (Father), dedicated himself from a very early age to creating miniatures in fired clay, representing popular customs that constituted a small but significant area among the many that his multifaceted artistic production covered.

The proliferation of figurines and groups numbered in the dozens and, by focusing on quality, it was able to face and win over the vast competition that invaded a market with limited artistic appetites.

His main source of inspiration was his observation of the customs, costumes, professions, typical characters, whether they were humorous or engaged in playful activities, from various regions of the country, mapping out the soul of the Portuguese people.

Addressing his grandfather, Sá Lemos wrote: “You, who knew your role models to the core, reproduced them by talking to them, even when they were absent, because you had them inside you, in your heart: look at that “Aguadeiro”, the popular Tanagra from the longing R. do Laranjal, the one who brought you water every day and talked to you, the one you cured of a bad cold with an application of nettles.”

In 1839, the Museum was taken over by the Director of the Academia Portuense de Belas Artes, who organised a series of exhibitions that honoured notable artists such as Soares dos Reis, Silva Porto, Marques de Oliveira and Henrique Pousão, in successive generations of masters and disciples.

With the proclamation of the Republic, it was renamed the Soares dos Reis Museum in memory of one of the most outstanding names in Portuguese art, and in 1932 it became a National Museum.

The links between Álvaro Siza’s architecture and the Baroque are present in various authors who have written about Siza, as well as in the way he himself, referring to Porto, and to Nasoni, in his own written texts, announces his interest and commitment to learning more about Baroque architecture and the city.

This programme includes a series of events that cross and intertwine Siza’s architecture, Nasoni’s architecture, gilded woodcarving, Baroque-contemporary music, etc.

On 12 September, the Soares dos Reis National Museum opens the Siza Baroque exhibition, which will run until 31 December, placing it side by side with ancient art and Fernando Távora’s project for the Museum.

Admission is free to all events, subject to capacity.

In the collection of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, the oeuvre of Henrique Pousão is strongly represented, in particular the artworks The White Houses of Capri (Casas Brancas de Capri), Lady in Black (Senhora Vestida de Preto) and Windows with Blue Shutters (Janelas das Persianas Azuis), paintings classified as national treasures.

‘A Magazine’ is the result of a successful application for Creative Entrepreneurship Support from the Magallanes ICC, the Magellan Centre for Entrepreneurship in the Cultural and Creative Industries.

According to its editorial, “A Magazine communicates the various dimensions of cultural heritage, the performing, visual and popular arts, handicrafts, archaeology, wine tourism and gastronomy, music, literature, and contemporary values, creating knowledge and recognition of them”.

In 2017, the Soares dos Reis National Museum, in collaboration with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, hosted the exhibition “José de Almada Negreiros: drawing in motion“. Curated by Mariana Pinto dos Santos, the exhibition brought together 90 artworks revealing the importance of cinematographic language in his artistic work.

Several of the artworks selected were initially in the exhibition “Almada Negreiros. A Way of Being Modern” which, at the beginning of that year, occupied various spaces in the Gulbenkian Museum and the Foundation’s programme in Lisbon.

In the majority of Almada Negreiros’ work, his desire to tell stories with images is clearly visible, many of them with hints of humour, both in series of drawings and in works integrated into buildings and even tapestries. Fascinated by the possibility of bringing drawings to life and putting them in motion, Almada Negreiros often intended to experiment with animation but never realized his wish.

The combination of cinema and drawing appears in works such as the magic lantern La Tragedia de Doña Ajada (1929) and the drawn film O Naufrágio da Ínsua (1934), works specifically designed for public presentations on cinema screens, real or imagined. The hybridity between drawing and cinema is also expressed in some of his literary, poetic and essayistic texts, where both plastic and cinematographic intersections can be seen.

“José de Almada Negreiros: drawing in motion” was on display at the Soares dos Reis National Museum between the 30^th of November 2017 and the 18^th of March 2018.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum is a cultural and artistic institution of reference, owner of a collection of international dimensions, thus, the action of the last triennium has been conducted towards “affirming the Museum as a place for the construction of meanings from its collections, a place of belonging and identity promoting reflection, creativity, and contemporary critical thinking.”

On the other hand, António Ponte adds “an intense and qualified program of temporary exhibitions has been promoted, along with a renewal in education services and work that solidifies the Museum’s approach to external communities”. The programs ‘Other Places’, ‘Art & Health’, and ‘Neighbours’ consolidate the strategic vision of opening the Museum to networks of community proximity.

Alongside these processes, the continuation of the internal procedures renewal, training and team reinforcement has been ensured, always aiming to provide an increasingly consolidated quality service to the Museum’s audiences.

It is worth noting that the Soares dos Reis National Museum ended the year 2023 with a total of visitors exceeding 74,500 entries, which represents a record attendance for the past five years.

In Paris, he settled in Rue Denfert-Rochereau, where other Portuguese artists such as Teixeira Lopes, the son, resided. He contacted the Parisian artist Alexandre Falguière (1831-1900) and various compatriots, including writers Eça de Queiroz (1845-1900) and António Nobre (1867-1900), painters Carlos Reis (1863-1940) and Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (1887-1918), and the historian and art critic José de Figueiredo (1872-1937).

In 1893, with the end of financial support and lack of results, Augusto Santo was forced to return to Portugal. He then began working in his studio in Coimbrões and frequented the cafés of Praça Nova in Porto, where he met intellectuals like Pádua Correia and Manuel Laranjeira, who described him as a sad face, a sleepwalking misanthrope in the crowd.

Among the few surviving artworks from the destruction, the sculpture “Ismael” stands out, a final proof of his course at the Porto Academy of Fine Arts, dated 1889. The original, in plaster, is preserved at the Soares dos Reis National Museum, where the bronze cast is exhibited.

Augusto Santo died at Santo António Hospital in Porto on September 26, 1907, a victim of tuberculosis.