The oil on canvas dated 1875 “Portrait of a man in profile”, by Portuguese artist José Júlio de Sousa Pinto, will be presented at the Biennale des Antiquaires de Paris, taking place between 21 and 26 November at the Grand Palais Ephémère, with 110 galleries from 12 countries.
This edition, with 41 new exhibitors, features mainly French galleries, but also galleries from Portugal, Spain, the United States, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Germany.
José Júlio de Sousa Pinto’s painting will be presented by the Portuguese-French gallerist Philippe Mendes, who lives in Paris.
This “Portrait of a man in profile”, oil on canvas dated 1875, is an early work by the young artist, who would come to be recognised as one of the greatest Portuguese painters of his time, according to the reference on the page of the fair in the French capital, where Philippe Mendes opened a gallery in 2007, mainly with French and Italian paintings from the 16th to the 19th century.
José Júlio de Sousa Pinto was born in the Azores on 15 September 1856 and 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 high marks, new horizons opened up for him.
In 1880, he applied to the Portuguese boarding school 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 fellow student Henrique Pousão, who was competing in Landscape. 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 showed his talents and application skills, working hard and winning prizes.
Still a student, in 1884 he exhibited his work Macieira partida (Snapped Apple Tree, now owned by the Soares dos Reis National Museum and on display in the long-term exhibition) at the Salon exhibitions. In 1899, the painting “La récolte des pommes de terre” led him to the glory of being represented at the Musée du Luxembourg (today 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, gifts and bequests. The group of works by this artist in the Fernando de Castro House-Museum is significant, consisting of portraits, genre scenes and landscapes, oils and pastels, with themes from Portugal and France.
Image credits
Portrait of a man in profile
José Julio de SOUSA PINTO (1856-1939)
@Galerie Mendes