Data released by the World Health Organisation indicates that by 2030, depression is expected to become the most common illness in the world, affecting more people than any other health problem.

Raising awareness of this growing trend, alerting and sensitising people to the need to extend the debate on mental illness to the public sphere, linking the scientific community and citizens, is a pressing need that calls on all sectors of society, including museums.

It is in this context that the Soares dos Reis National Museum has been carrying out various actions under the “Art & Health” programme.

The “Portreto de la Animo” exhibition and parallel activities are the focus of this programme in 2023, continuing with a cultural offer aimed at minimising the impact of illness, increasing self-confidence and well-being, making it possible to build a safe environment, relieving suffering and reducing the anguish of the people who take part in them.

The “Portreto de la Animo” exhibition includes selected pieces from the Treger Saint Silvestre Collection that relate to processes of self-representation and were mostly produced in contexts of illness. The Soares dos Reis National Museum is thus bringing together these works of art, inscribed in currents that go beyond the traditional, with others from its own collection.

With a history of almost 200 years, the Soares dos Reis National Museum – the first public art museum in the country – has been repositioning itself, now presenting a new perspective on its collections.

The long-term exhibition presents a journey with two complementary narratives. The first reflects the history of the Museum and the way in which the collections were integrated; the second values ​​artists and their works.

In addition to the interest generated by the long-term exhibition, the current temporary exhibition – Portreto de la Animo – has also registered a very significant turnout of the public.

This is an exhibition of portraits and self-portraits that are part of the Treger Saint Silvestre collection, one of the most important and extensive private collections of Brut Art in the world.

Composed of around 150 works by 99 artists, the exhibition also includes several pieces from the collection of the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis, placed in dialogue with pieces from the Treger Saint Silvestre Collection.

Started in the 1980s, the Treger Saint Silvestre Collection, in storage at the Centro de Arte Oliva, comprises a numerous collection of works of Art Brut, being one of the most important and extensive private collections in the world and counting on a large number of recognized authors.

The exhibition “Portreto de la Animo”, according to curator António Saint Silvestre considered “the largest exhibition of Brute Art ever held in the Iberian Peninsula”, is promoted in partnership with the Municipal Council of São João da Madeira, the Centro de Arte Oliva and collectors António Saint Silvestre and Richard Treger, with patronage support from Fundação Millennium bcp and Lusitânia Seguros and institutional support from Círculo Dr. José de Figueiredo – Association of Friends of Soares dos Reis National Museum.

It will be open to the public until November 12, 2023.

This year, World Tourism Day is celebrated under the theme of Green Tourism and Investment – ​​one of the main priorities for tourism recovery, future growth and development.

The World Tourism Organization highlights the need for more investments aimed at people, the planet and prosperity, highlighting the importance of finding innovative solutions that promote and sustain economic growth and productivity, converging on sustainability goals .

In Portugal, the number of foreign tourists visiting our country exceeded eight million between January and June, making it the best first half of all time, according to data released by the National Statistics Institute.

Following the national trend in the first half of the year, 536.4 thousand overnight stays were recorded in Porto (7.2% of the total), an increase of 25.1% compared to June 2019 (+31.7% for residents and +23.9% in non-residents).

The increase in tourist demand in the city of Porto was also reflected in the influx of visitors to the Soares dos Reis National Museum which, from the beginning of the year until the end of July, registered a total of 43,387 visitors (of this total universe, 34, 5% are foreign visitors).

Naturalism was an aesthetic and artistic movement that emerged in France from 1830, with the creation of the Barbizon School and through the paintings of Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867), Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) and Gustave Courbet (1819-1877).

In Portugal, the naturalist and realist aesthetic of the Barbizon School was introduced by the painters Silva Porto (1850-1893) and Marques de Oliveira (1853-1927), and lasted until the 1920s.

The painters came into contact with this new artistic movement during their stay in France as pensioners of the Portuguese state.

In 1867, the Academies of Fine Arts began awarding scholarships to students abroad. Silva Porto and Marques de Oliveira were the first recipients of scholarships in painting.

They entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1873 and, in the forest of Barbizon, lived with a group of artists who followed open-air painting, focussing on the effects of light on the landscape.

Henrique Pousão also went to Paris in 1880. His paintings of roads and streets, courtyards, houses and aspects of Paris bear witness to his creative journey, which culminated in his stays in Rome and Capri.

His work, which 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, was given, after his premature death, to the Academia Portuense de Belas Artes.

Biographies

António Carvalho da Silva Porto (1850 – 1893)

After completing his studies at the Academia Portuense de Belas-Artes, in 1873 he left for Paris, on a state pension, to study landscape painting. In France he painted in Barbizon, the mythical birthplace of Naturalism, and in Auvers he met Daubigny, one of the masters of the movement.

He exhibited at the Salon in 1876 and 78. Settling in Rome, he travelled with Marques de Oliveira to various cities in Italy.

In 1879 he returned to Italy. The landscapes he presented at the historic exhibition of the Sociedade Promotora das Belas-Artes in 1880 introduced the naturalist aesthetic to Portugal. Around him, a group of young painters gathered for the annual “Exposições de Quadros Modernos” (Exhibitions of Modern Paintings), which Columbano celebrated in 1885 with the collective portrait O Grupo do Leão (The Lion Group).

In the last years of his activity, he developed a painting of regional types and customs, which would be explored in a more exuberant way by José Malhoa and Carlos Reis.

João Marques de Oliveira (1853 – 1927)

He began his artistic apprenticeship at a very young age with the private master António José da Costa, and then enrolled at the Academia Portuense de Belas Artes.

A classmate of Silva Porto, he would continue with him between 1873 and 1879 as a state pensioner abroad, Marques de Oliveira in the Historical Painting class and Silva Porto in Landscape Painting. He left for Paris at the end of 1873 and in 1874 enrolled at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris.

Linked to history painting by his boarding school duties and, later, his teaching, Marques de Oliveira always showed a great sensitivity to nature and landscape studies, which he tried to fix in small prints. His activity as a teacher was remarkable, bringing his students into direct contact with nature, but always insisting on the quality of drawing as the basis of any work.

Like Silva Porto, he was one of the main elements in the introduction of naturalism in Portugal. He died in 1927 and in 1929 he was honoured in Porto with the inauguration of a monument (designed by Soares dos Reis) in his honour in the Jardim de S. Lázaro.

Over the years, the Carrancas Palace has undergone changes due to the mobility of the Morais e Castro family and the frequent presence of guests. However, some principles of utilisation of the various floors can be sketched out.

On the first floor we find the large entrance hall around which the storerooms, stables and coach houses were distributed. The middle floor was probably used by the family, and the noble floor was reserved for the important people who stayed here. The top floor must have been used by the servants, and the factory workshops and perhaps the kitchen occupied the two wings surrounding the inner garden.

The Palácio dos Carrancas was built in 1795 by the Morais e Castro family, descendants of New Christians, who belonged to the Porto bourgeoisie and who became wealthy from the Gold and Silver Wire Stripping Factory located here. The building, with its factory and residence, witnessed and was the scene of social, military and political events throughout the 19th century.

Markedly urban and in keeping with the Neoclassical style that was taking hold in Porto at the time, the palace had a unique character in the context of private construction. Everything points to the intervention of municipal architects Joaquim da Costa Lima Sampaio and José Francisco de Paiva. The façade, with its clear design, divided the building into two horizontal bodies.

The distribution followed the hierarchy of the old regime and architectural treatises: a noble floor, an enclosed courtyard with a high wall, separation of manufacturing and labourers, and the farmhouse set back. Luxury was evident in the interior spaces, particularly on the main floor, with a grandiose Dining Room and Music Room still standing from that period.

The building’s grandeur associated it with the scene of the city’s great political and military events. For example, during the first French invasion, it was considered a strategic location and was occupied by Marshal Soult. Shortly afterwards, his successor in military command of the city, the head of the liberating army, General Arthur Wellesley, settled here.

Reinforcing the Museum’s motto “A museum of people, by people for people”, the Other Places programme aims to continue the touring of the Soares dos Reis National Museum’s collections with partner organisations. The action aims to go beyond the Museum’s space and its formal organisation to involve unlikely and different curatorships, given the nature of the partners, the place of presentation and the respective contexts.

The selection of artworks that will be on display in Rua do Cativo over the next few months for the enjoyment of those who pass through the street will find in Cativo a space dedicated to cultural democracy. This is a joint initiative between the Lionesa Group, the Soares dos Reis National Museum and SIGN – Wide Format Printing.

The exhibition also marks the 1st anniversary of the Lionesa Group and continues the Art for Art initiative, a movement that sees art as a magnifying glass on the territory, a stethoscope on the neighbour, a stereoscope on an entire community.

About the Art for Art project

The Art for Art movement began when investment was made in buildings in Porto’s historic Rua do Loureiro. Temporarily walled off due to health safety and municipal guidelines, the Lionesa Group began to refurbish the building, opening up the street to the city through art. Five artistic interventions were the result of the partnership with the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. This first initiative provided a real open-air art gallery, completely open to visitors and inhabitants of Rua do Loureiro.

This will be followed by the Lugar Cativo project, which will continue the Art for Art Movement, in partnership with the Soares dos Reis National Museum and SIGN, with the clear aim of transforming the area into a centre for sharing culture, life and art.

About the Other Places project

The purpose of the Other Places programme is to affirm the Soares dos Reis National Museum as a place that goes beyond its formal space and organisation to involve unlikely and different curators, given the nature of the partners, the presentation venue and the respective contexts.

As part of this programme, the 42 DRAWINGS BY ANTÓNIO CARNEIRO FOR DANTE’S INFERNO exhibition has already been presented at Casa dos Livros in Porto; and the LIFE CYCLE exhibition, which, based on the allegory FOUR SEASONS, a series of four 17th century canvases, took to the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Porto, a group of paintings that establish a relationship with the different stages of the human being’s life.

Lugar Cativo materialises a new model for managing cultural heritage through the association of public and private entities, in an effort to increasingly democratise access to culture and confront the public with works of art in unlikely spaces, seeking to encourage visits to the works in their formal exhibition context at the Soares dos Reis National Museum in Porto.

After that, he was director of the Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda and director-general for Cultural Affairs at the Ministry of Education and Culture, launching, in 1975, among other actions, a project to revitalise the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

Ruben Andresen Leitão graduated in Historical-Philosophical Sciences from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra, where he defended his thesis Cartas de D. Pedro V ao Conde de Lavradio (Letters from King Pedro V to the Count of Lavradio). From then on, his interest in Pedro V led him to publish numerous volumes of the king’s correspondence, as well as other historical studies and research.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum is today housed in the Carrancas Palace, acquired by King Pedro V in 1861 as the official residence of the royal family during their visits to the north of the country.

The building was donated to Misericórdia in 1915 through the will of King Manuel II, who intended to build a hospital there, but this never materialised.

Later, the State bought the palace to house the Soares dos Reis National Museum, which had been founded in 1833 by King Pedro IV and was housed in the Santo António Convent, now the Porto Municipal Public Library.

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

The archive consists of reference works, monographs, periodicals, museum catalogues, exhibition catalogues, auction catalogues, academic theses and collections of posters, postcards and leaflets.

The Archive, which reflects the activity and history of the institution, is divided into two funds, that of the Soares dos Reis National Museum and that of the Porto Municipal Museum. The processing and control of documentation and information, as well as consultation and dissemination are some of the services offered.

Access to the Library requires prior booking via e-mail: biblioteca@mnsr.dgpc.pt

The programme is part of one of the Fundação da Juventude’s strategic vectors – Employment and Entrepreneurship – and is a strong contribution to overcoming the obstacle of young students’ lack of experience and poor preparation for the world of work.

Since 1993, this programme has been responding to the needs of young people finishing higher education, enabling them to perform professional tasks and increase their knowledge in a real working environment.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum is joining the initiative, offering young people enrolled in the programme an internship opportunity at the country’s first public art museum. The internship programme will begin on 25 September.

Until the end of this month, the Soares dos Reis National Museum has free extended opening hours every Thursday from 18:00 to 20:00. The initiative is part of the summer programme that has been energising the Museum since June, with a very diverse calendar of activities.

On 28 September, at 6pm, there will be a Meeting in the Garden, with a commented session on the sculpture O Eco, which will address issues such as the iconography of the work, conservation problems and the affiliation of the author, Maria Ribeiro.

Maria da Glória Ribeiro da Cruz, documented between 1902 and 1930, was one of the few women who dedicated herself to sculpture in Portugal at the time, and the first to have a work integrated into a public garden in Lisbon.

Although little known, her work deserves a prominent place in the artistic panorama of the early 20th century.

Trained at the Porto School of Fine Arts and a disciple of Teixeira Lopes, she also studied at the École Nationale de Beux-Arts in Paris and attended the Drawing Course at the Académie Colarossi, where she was awarded first prize.

She was taught by Laurent-Honoré Marqueste, Victor Peter and Louis-François Biloul and took part in several exhibitions in Portugal and France.

This year, the 49th International Conference of ICAMT – ICOM International Committee for Architecture and Museum Techniques, will be organised by the University of Porto, from 25 to 27 October 2023. Together with ICAMT, the Portuguese entities responsible for organising this event are the Transdisciplinary Research Centre “Culture, Space and Memory” (CITCEM) and the Centre for Architecture and Urbanism Studies (CEAU).

The main theme of the conference will be “Undoing conflict in museums: materiality and meaning of museum architecture and exhibition design”. Conference participants will be able to focus their reflections on the Power of Conflict. Discussing how opposing ideas can promote change and evolution in museums and exhibitions, and the role of architecture and exhibition design in managing conflict in museums.

As part of the partnership established with the Soares dos Reis National Museum, on 25 October conference participants will have the opportunity to visit the museum, focusing on the curatorial aspects related to the process of developing and assembling the long-term exhibition, as well as the architectural aspects of the building.

Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso lived a short and intense life in Paris, where he made contacts with modernist artists, and returned to Portugal at the beginning of the First World War as a recognised painter in avant-garde circles, dying at the age of 30 from pneumonic flu.

He took part in group exhibitions in Paris, Berlin, New York, Chicago, Boston and London, and even exhibited and sold his work in the United States, being considered, by American art critic Robert Loescher, “one of the best kept secrets of early modern art”.

In 2016, more than 40,000 people visited the exhibition dedicated to Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso at the Soares dos Reis National Museum in Porto (at the image), which later moved to the Chiado Museum in Lisbon, and in the same year, at the Grand Palais in Paris, another exhibition brought together around 250 of the artist’s paintings, drawings and prints.

Robert Delaunay and Sonia Delaunay – a couple of artists who were instrumental in promoting Orphism – lived in Portugal for around a year during the First World War and met Portuguese artists Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso and Almada Negreiros, with whom they became friends.

‘Harmony and Dissonance: Orphism in Paris, 1910-1930’ will be on show at the Guggenheim Museum in New York from 08 November 2024 to 09 March 2025.

here

D. Pedro I of Brazil or Pedro IV of Portugal, “the Liberator”, was the first Emperor of Brazil as Pedro I from 1822 until his abdication in 1831, and also King of Portugal and the Algarves as Pedro IV between March and May 1826. He was the fourth son of King João VI of Portugal and Queen Carlota Joaquina of Spain.

One of the must-sees on the Porto Liberal Route is the Soares dos Reis National Museum, whose origins date back to the Museum of Paintings and Prints and other Fine Arts objects, created in 1833 by Pedro IV of Portugal, the first Emperor of Brazil, to safeguard the assets sequestered from the absolutists and convents abandoned during the civil war.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum keeps some of the items that made up the uniform of Colonel of Hunters No. 5, worn by Pedro de Alcântara, Duke of Bragança, during the Siege of Oporto: dolman, waistcoat, cap, cocked hat, sword, lanyard, boldrié (belt with talim for suspending the sword), eyeglass, map holder.

The first room of the new long-term exhibition at the Soares dos Reis National Museum shows, in rotation, the elements of the uniforms worn by King Pedro during the civil war.

The Porto Liberal Route was created in 2017, bringing together various organisations: Porto City Council, the Northern Regional Directorate for Culture, the Portuguese Army, Irmandade da Lapa, the Porto Misericórdia Museum and Church and the Soares dos Reis National Museum, to publicise the places associated with that time of struggle and the contribution made by Pedro IV, also the liberator of Brazil and its first emperor as an independent country.

At the age of 20, António Soares dos Reis was awarded a state scholarship abroad. In 1867 he left for Paris, where he attended the studio of M. Jouffroy and the École Imperiale et Speciale des Beaux Arts.

“At the end of his boarding school period, he returned to Portugal, arriving in Vila Nova de Gaia in the first days of September 1872. It was at this time that Soares dos Reis presented The Exiled (O Desterrado) as documentary proof of the success of his studies, in order to justify his stay abroad under the scholarship. That same year, on 23 December, he was named Academician of Merit by the Porto Academy.

In 1873, he set up his first studio at no. 99 Rua das Malmerendas. 99 Rua das Malmerendas, now Rua Dr Alves Veiga. (…) And so two years passed before the commission for two marble busts, of the Viscount of Tamandaré and the Marquis of Herval, opened up new horizons for him.

He remained in this first studio until 1875, where he also produced some of his first important works: Black Man Head (Cabeça de Negro), Missing (Saudade), The Artist in Childhood (O Artista na Infância) (in honour of Grão Vasco) and a commission for a Nossa Senhora da Vitória (which was not well received by the Church).

When his work began to show signs of improvement, the sculptor Soares dos Reis began working on a project that he had been harbouring for a long time, to have a house built closer to his parents that would also serve as a studio. In 1876, he received approval from the city council for the design of the studio-house that was eventually built at number 33 Rua Luís de Camões in Vila Nova de Gaia.”[1].

[1] Master’s dissertation in Regional and Local History, specialising in History and Heritage Management, submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon in 2011 by Sónia Queiroga.

The works focused on portrait and self-portrait are placed in confrontation or exhibition dialogue with other pieces belonging to the Soares dos Reis National Museum collection: Set of Miniatures; Bust-Reliquary of São Pantaleão; Mother and Daughter by Sarah Afonso; terracotta sculpture by Hein Semke; Mortuary Mask of Soares dos Reis by José Joaquim Teixeira Lopes; Escarrador by Rafael Bordallo Pinheiro; and Portrait of Augusto Santo by Rudolf Joham Weisse.

Around 150 works have been selected for this exhibition, which are related to processes of self-representation and were mostly produced in contexts of illness. The Soares dos Reis National Museum is thus bringing together these works of art, inscribed in currents that go beyond the traditional, with others from its own collection.

In the context of this exhibition, the Soares dos Reis National Museum intends, through its artistic collections and the Treger Saint Silvestre Collection, to develop a programme that encourages discussion and approaches to mental health through art and artists.

The aim is to provide contemplation, empathy and strengthen the emotional bond between the public and the compositions on display. The aim is to create an experience of enjoyment, but essentially to raise awareness of the person’s inner world and its expressions.

The exhibition “Portreto de la Animo”, according to curator António Saint Silvestre considered “the largest exhibition of Fine Art ever held on the Iberian Peninsula”, is being promoted in partnership with São João da Madeira City Council, the Oliva Art Centre and collectors António Saint Silvestre and Richard Treger, with the patronage support of the Millennium bcp Foundation and Lusitânia Seguros and the institutional support of the Círculo Dr José de Figueiredo – Association of Friends of the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

As part of the collaborative travelling project Other Places, the temporary exhibition António Carneiro’s Drawings for Dante’s Inferno was on show at Casa dos Livros, a newly space promoted by University of Porto. The initiative marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of painter-poet António Carneiro and the 700th anniversary of the death of Alighieri Dante.

Forty-two drawings by António Carneiro were produced to illustrate the Inferno from Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. This epic work composed of three canticles was widely publicised through Vasco Graça Moura’s outstanding translation, the complete collection of which is held by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto.

Biography of António Carneiro
Painter, professor at the Porto School of Fine Arts, artistic director of the magazine Águia, 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.

Other works by Lanhas from this period have titles with a musical reference, eliciting the association of shapes with sounds. They were later replaced by a combination of acronyms and numbers. For reasons we don’t know, Tambores escapes this self-imposed standardisation.

He graduated in Architecture from the University of Porto’s School of Fine Arts in 1947 and is mainly recognised for his work as a painter. During his formative years in Porto, he led the Fine Arts Student Group. Belonging to a circle of students that included Nadir Afonso, Júlio Pomar and Manuel Pereira da Silva, he soon became interested in painting.

Considered the introducer of geometric abstractionism in Portugal, in 1945 he exhibited some of the paintings he had developed in the field of Abstractionism, a trend that would mark future Independent Exhibitions.

His entire work is characterised by a stylistic unity, conferred by the recurrent use of tense, broken lines that are sometimes repeated in parallel. The support of the plane, on which warm and cold, smooth or textured patches of colour are organised, combined with lines in perspective, proves to be the most important.

The colour range used, in a range of greys and ochres, alludes to the colours of certain minerals, sometimes used as the pigment itself. The broad, almost mechanical lines structure the field of perception, delimiting areas and taking on the function of signs.

The abstract nature of his painting is further reinforced by the technical designations given to the pictures, such as “O10-50” and “O42-69”.

As part of the summer programme, on the 30th of August, at 3 pm, a guided tour of the Noble Floor of the Palácio dos Carrancas will take place.

Over the years of use, the occupation of the space has undergone changes, due to the mobility of the family and the frequent existence of guests. However, some principles of use of the various floors can be outlined.

On the first floor we find the large entrance hall around which the warehouses, stables and stables were distributed. The middle floor was used by the family, and the main floor was reserved for the important people who stayed here. The top floor should have been reserved for servants, and the factory workshops and perhaps the kitchen occupied the two wings that surrounded the interior garden.

The Palácio dos Carrancas was built in 1795 by the Morais e Castro family, descendants of New Christians, belonging to the Porto bourgeoisie and who became rich with the Fábrica de Fio de Fio de Prata installed here. The building, with a manufacturing unit and residence, witnessed and was the scene of social, military and political events throughout the 19th century.

Markedly urban and following the Neoclassical style, which was then installed in Porto, the Palace had a unique character in the context of private construction. Everything points to the intervention of municipal architects Joaquim da Costa Lima Sampaio and José Francisco de Paiva. The façade, with great clarity of design, divided the building into two horizontal bodies.

The distribution followed the hierarchy of the old regime and the architecture treaties: noble floor, enclosed courtyard with a raised wall, separation of manufactures and workers and the farmhouse set back. Luxury asserted itself in the interior spaces, namely on the main floor, with a grandiose Dining Room and the Music Room still remaining from that period.

The grandeur of the building associated it with the scene of major political-military events in the city. For example, during the first French invasion, it was considered a strategic location and occupied by Marshal Soult. Shortly afterwards, his successor in the city’s military command, head of the liberating army, General Arthur Wellesley, settled here.

José Júlio de Sousa Pinto, born in the Azores on 15 September 1856, died in France on 14 April 1939. In 1870, he began his studies at the Academia Portuense de Belas Artes, where he was a pupil of Thadeu Maria de Almeida Furtado, João António Correia and Soares dos Reis, and proved to be a brilliant student. With the Painting course completed in 1878 and excellent school grades, new horizons opened up for him.

In 1880, he applied for a scholarship to study abroad and, having won the competition, left for Paris that same year to study history or figure painting. He left at the same time as his colleague Henrique Pousão, a student in the Landscape discipline. In Paris, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts and was a pupil of Yvon and Cabanel. He would come to be influenced by Jules Breton and, above all, Bastien-Lepage. Right from the start, he proved his skills and ability to apply himself, working hard and winning awards.

Still a student, in 1884 he presented his work “Aprês L’Ouragan” (The Broken Apple Tree, now part of the Soares dos Reis National Museum) at the Salon exhibitions. In 1899, his painting “La récolte des pommes de terre” led him to the glory of being represented at the Musée du Luxembourg (now the Musée d’Orsay).

A renowned artist during his lifetime, in addition to the prizes he won in many of the exhibitions he entered, Sousa Pinto was decorated with the Orders of Santiago de Espada and Christ of Portugal, the Legion of Honour of France and was an Honorary Member of the Madrid Society of Artists. He is represented in several museums in France, Monte Carlo, the United States, Australia and Rio de Janeiro.

In Portugal his works are scattered among a large number of private collectors and in museums such as Grão Vasco, Casa-Museu dos Patudos, Casa-Museu Teixeira Lopes and Museu do Chiado.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum has works by Sousa Pinto from the Portuense Academy of Fine Arts, the former Municipal Museum, offers and bequests. The set of works by this artist at the Fernando de Castro House-Museum is significant, comprising portraits, genre scenes and landscapes, oils and pastels, with themes from Portugal and France.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum offers visits with different themes, to discover unexpected and surprising details about its history and collections. As part of the Soares dos Reis National Museum’s summer programme, and coinciding with the celebration of European Heritage Days, a guided tour of the fountains in the Soares dos Reis National Museum’s collection will take place on 22 September at 11am.

Water, an essential element for life, inspired the construction of structures for its distribution, fountains and fountains, which marked urbanism and city life.

Fountains and fountains scattered throughout the city’s streets, squares and squares are places where Porto’s heritage and history are visible and the sound of water echoes. Fonte dos Leões, Fonte Monumental Mouzinho da Silveira, Fonte da Cantareira, Chafariz do Passeio Alegre, Chafariz da Trindade and Fonte da Praça da Ribeira are some examples of the city’s most emblematic fountains.

According to the municipal company Águas do Porto, the city currently has a total of 170 fountains and 65 water fountains distributed throughout the urban fabric.

On this visit, we suggest discovering some fountain statues that belonged to fountains that have disappeared from the city of Porto, among other objects and representations in the long-term exhibition at the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

In this context, and following the presentation of the National Railway Museum’s Sustainability Plan last May, the National Railway Museum Foundation is organising a Talk entitled Pathways to Sustainability, which aims to talk about sustainability in its different aspects and the contribution of museums to this issue.

European Heritage Days

The JEPs are a joint initiative of the Council of Europe and the European Commission and are the most widely celebrated and shared cultural event by Europe’s citizens.

More than 70,000 events are organized every year with the aim of raising awareness of Europe’s common heritage and the need for its continued protection, through the creation of experiences that promote inclusion and foster creativity and innovation.

The basic idea of the initiative is to promote access to heritage, inviting active participation in the discovery of a common cultural heritage, implying the involvement of European citizens with cultural heritage.

Reinforcing feelings of cultural identity, collective memory and the affirmation of a common heritage whose richness lies in its diversity are the main objectives of the JEPs, which therefore represent a celebration of international solidarity, dialogue and cultural diversity, constituting moments of reappropriation of the cultural remains of the past.

It is present in practices, representations, expressions, knowledge and unique artifacts, both in the places of origin and throughout the world, in a reference to the practices and ways in which the past is preserved in the collective memory, establishing links between recognizing, safeguarding and promoting goods intangible cultural heritage, as well as transmitting them to future generations in a rapidly changing world.

All over the world, JEP 2023 challenges, through “Living Heritage”, a reflection on the responses to be given to the challenges posed by society.

European Heritage Days

The JEPs are a joint initiative of the Council of Europe and the European Commission and are the most widely celebrated and shared cultural event by Europe’s citizens.

More than 70,000 events are organized every year with the aim of raising awareness of Europe’s common heritage and the need for its continued protection, through the creation of experiences that promote inclusion and foster creativity and innovation.

The basic idea of the initiative is to promote access to heritage, inviting active participation in the discovery of a common cultural heritage, implying the involvement of European citizens with cultural heritage.

Reinforcing feelings of cultural identity, collective memory and the affirmation of a common heritage whose richness lies in its diversity are the main objectives of the JEPs, which therefore represent a celebration of international solidarity, dialogue and cultural diversity, constituting moments of reappropriation of the cultural remains of the past.

Consult the JEP 2023 Program always being updated

In all, 40 producers from the Demarcated Region of Vinhos Verdes will present the diversity of the offer currently available, from light and fresh white wines to the most complex, gastronomic and long-lived wines, native to unique grape varieties such as Alvarinho, Loureiro or Avesso, among many others. There will also be pleasure rosés, Atlantic reds and character reds, sparkling wines to toast to all occasions.

Five restaurants and five other food trucks will be in continuous operation at the festival, providing an eclectic list of gastronomic options, from grilled meats to sea flavors, from salty to sweet snacks.

The Gentlemen’s Market will bring together iconic brands, the “Mãos na Massa” sessions will challenge authentic cooking classes, there will be tastings conducted by experts, games and activities to share with the family, DJ’s performances and even the Banquet, where mastery from renowned chefs is paired with a refined selection of wines with a sommelier’s expertise.

The daily concert lineup is already defined with performances by GNR, Os Azeitonas and Roda de Samba Cravo e Canela.

Program available for consultation.

Entrance at Rua de Adolfo Casais Monteiro, 47

Time
Friday | 17:00 – 00:00
Saturday | 12h00 – 00h00
Sunday | 12h00 – 22h00

The Soares dos Reis National Museum’s summer programme continues with visits at the right time and on 22 September, at 3pm, visitors will be taken on a tour of the long-term exhibition that highlights the portrait in artistic production.

The representation of the other or others has been a constant in artistic manifestations and is a powerful document of the desire for eternity, of personal, social and artistic status, of the way we aspire to be seen in life and in posterity. In this visit, the tour centres on the Romantics and Naturalists of the 19th century and different environments over the generations.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum’s summer programme comes to a close in September with the Saturday Meetings. On 30 September, the agenda includes the guided tour in Portuguese about Landscape painting in Naturalism.

In the painting galleries on the first floor of the long-term exhibition, visitors will learn how the naturalist movement emerged in Portugal and the different approaches to landscape painting in the work of some artists from the Porto School.

The visit will allow you to understand the historical and cultural context in which naturalist painting emerged in Portugal and to see examples of the work of some naturalists from the Oporto school, namely Silva Porto, Artur Loureiro, Henrique Pousão and Sousa Pinto.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum’s summer programme continues in September and maintains the Meetings on Saturday. On 16 September, the agenda includes a guided tour in Portuguese about a Medieval Christ sculpture and other segments of European art.

On the second floor of the long-term exhibition, dedicated to the diversity of collections, visitors are taken to the gallery where there is a large-format Christ, from the 13th century and of peninsular origin, which takes us back to other highly qualified images of European production.

The sculpture is one of a small number of wooden Christs on the cross in Portugal and until recently it was in the reserves of the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

Activity held in Portuguese.

The Machado de Castro National Museum is marking the 100th anniversary of Manuel Jardim’s death with this exhibition, featuring works by other Portuguese Modernist artists such as Amadeo de Sousa Cardoso, Guilherme de Santa Rita, Eduardo Viana and Almada Negreiros.

Opening hours remain from Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm (last entry at 5.30pm), closed on Mondays. Until the end of September, and following the summer timetable, the museum has extended opening hours on Thursdays, between 6pm and 8pm, also with free admission.

Long-term exhibitions, gardens and temporary exhibitions

Visitors can visit the entire Soares dos Reis National Museum, including the long-term exhibition, the gardens and the temporary exhibition Portreto de la Animo Art Brut Etc., open until 12 November.

An eclectic musical journey will be offered, starting with the ancestral rhythms of world music and passing through the intense flavor of cumbia and the tropical sounds of Latin America. In the middle of this musical spectrum, the intensity and power of electronic music, based on house and joyful, contagious tribal rhythms. Funk Carioca also fits in the line-up.

The former Maria Amélia velodrome

The garden of the Soares dos Reis National Museum is located at the back of the Carrancas Palace, where the Maria Amélia velodrome was inaugurated in 1894, of which there are still significant remains.

It was a facility that, at the time, responded to the growing enthusiasm that Porto’s elite felt for cycling at the end of the 19th century.

Intended for races on these “crazy, fast machines”, with a track that allowed you to cover a kilometre in three laps, this was one of the city’s first sporting venues and also included two tennis courts.

Opened in what was then a small forest and vegetable garden, given by King Carlos to the Velo Club do Porto Association, the velodrome was developed at the back of the neoclassical Carrancas Palace, built in 1795 by the Morais e Castro family and which, acquired in 1861 by King Pedro V, became the official residence of the royal family when they travelled to Porto.

Later, in 1940, it was converted into the Soares dos Reis National Museum. The velodrome was named after King Carlos I’s wife, Queen Dona Amélia.

Currently on display in the Museum Garden (former velodrome) are stone objects linked to the history of the city of Porto. The vast majority of these objects come from the demolition of buildings (convents or chapels), fountains and walls that took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a result of the city’s urban growth.

In this article, the author aims to analyze the institutional partnership established between the CAC and the MNSR during those four years. To this end, “the creation of the CAC is contextualized from the perspective of the absence of a modern art museum capable of meeting the needs of the national artistic community, as well as from the panorama of the intense artistic dynamics developed in Porto from the middle of the 20th century”.

In the aftermath of the 1974 revolution, the city of Porto was the scene of a number of movements that demanded that the city create a space to exhibit the art produced at the time, the best-known example of which was the so-called “Burial of the Soares dos Reis National Museum”, a performance event held on June 10, 1974.

The importance of the existing Contemporary Art Center was a determining factor in the Secretary of State for Culture choosing Porto as the location for the future National Museum of Modern Art. In 1986, the State acquired Quinta de Serralves for this purpose, and in 1989, the Serralves Foundation was created.

At the end of last year, Inês Silvestre (PhD student in Art History at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the New University of Lisbon) presented a paper on the same theme at the VI Iberian Forum of Museum Studies: New Research Perspectives, organized by the University of Évora.

MIDAS is a biannual, open-access journal dedicated to museums as a field of interdisciplinary work and reflection. The magazine is published in Portugal, but takes an international approach, favoring a close relationship and dialogue with Portuguese and Spanish-speaking countries.

Image credits ©Archive MNSR DGPC/ADF

Photograph of the work Um campo depois da colheita para deleite estético do nosso corpo (A field after the harvest for the aesthetic delight of our bodies) (1973-1976), presented at Alberto Carneiro’s retrospective exhibition at the MNSR in September 1976.