MNAC collection

Romanticism and Pre-Naturalism
From 1828 the paintings of the French artist August Roquemont, depicting Portuguese folk customs, and the writings of Almeida Garrett, in particular in Viagens na minha terra (Travels in My Homeland, 1846), gave rise to the Portuguese Romantic movement in painting.
Through direct observation of their natural surroundings Tomás da Anunciação and António José Patrício sought the picturesque truth to be gleaned from landscapes, people and the lives of the common folk.
Meanwhile, other artists focused on the tragic side of nature, as is evident in the work of Cristino da Silva and Francisco Metrass. The latter also produced paintings that depicted scenes from Portuguese history, which had become a popular theme through the work of the writer and historian Alexandre Herculano.
Between 1851 and 1887 Fontes Pereira de Melo brought an economic and material drive to the country’s governance, with an emphasis on modern forms of transport, communication and public works, leading to greater assertiveness among the middle class and a new aristocracy. This social atmosphere is reflected in portraits by the Visconde de Menezes, as well as the work of Ferreira Chaves and Miguel Ângelo Lupi, whose paintings feature acute realism, and the bourgeois scenes and landscapes of Alfredo Keil, who produced exquisite small paintings that were suitable for the urban interiors of the time. (P.H.)
Naturalism
The first Portuguese painters to be supported by the State in order to study in Paris, Silva Porto and Marques de Oliveira, returned to their homeland in 1879, bringing with them the new style of capturing the light and climatic features of landscapes in open-air painting, as practised in France by painters from the Barbizon School.
Silva Porto, who painted landscapes and country life, was dubbed “the divine master” and became the leader of the Grupo do Leão, a group that took its name from the Leão de Ouro pub in Lisbon, a meeting place for artists and writers who shared an enthusiasm for modernity based on the principles of Naturalism.
Other key members of the group were Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, a painter of austere portraits for the intellectual elite; António Ramalho, who painted flamboyant portraits of the social elite; José Malhoa, who painted common people; and João Vaz, who painted seaside scenes.
In Porto, this aesthetic context gave rise to key figures such as the painters Artur Loureiro, Marques de Oliveira and Henrique Pousão, a highly modern painter who died young, as did Soares dos Reis, Portugal’s most important sculptor of the 19th century. (P.H.)

Late Naturalism and Symbolism
Naturalism took on a more modern dimension in the work of Veloso Salgado, to match the cosmopolitan tastes of the late 19th century, putting truthful representation at the service of pomp and pageantry. In the early decades of the 20th century Carlos Reis and Sousa Lopes also explored the visual effects of light and colour, with the attributes of the painting taking on greater importance than a faithful representation of the subject. José Malhoa also experimented with this approach, with brilliant results.
Symbolism opposed the values of Naturalism, which was based on concrete reality and truthful representation. Instead, it sought to convey concepts such as intimacy and loneliness, themes touched upon by Aurélia de Sousa, and to capture fleeting moments and feelings, as in the work of António Carneiro. Here the individual questions the deeper meaning of the visual image, and in doing so questions the very meaning of himself and the world. (P.H.)

MODERNISM
Breaks with tradition
In the years from 1910, the First Portuguese Republic was marked by a willingness to break with the artistic canon espoused by the academic institutions and Naturalism, which had become the dominant national taste.
The Exposição dos Humoristas Portugueses (Portuguese Humorists Exhibition) held in 1912 in Lisbon marked the first split in approaches to visual art and the emergence of a number of modern artists, among whom Cristiano Cruz was particularly prominent.
Due to periods spent in Paris, the painters Guilherme Santa-Rita and Amadeo de Souza Cardoso brought the aesthetics of the European avant-garde movements – Cubism, Futurism and Dada – to Portugal. These combined with the influence of the Orphism art movement founded by Sónia and Robert Delaunay, who lived in Portugal between 1915 and 1916, and had a particular impact on the painter Eduardo Viana. (P.H.)

MODERNISM
Return to order
Between 1920 and 1930 many of the modern artists who had espoused Modernism in 1912 opted for a return to order, depicting the whole body and spaces with reference to the geometry of forms, as seen in the paintings of Cézanne and reflected in the work of Eduardo Viana, Dordio Gomes and Abel Manta.
Authors such as Almada Negreiros, Jorge Barradas, Francis Smith and Carlos Botelho featured picturesque elements of the Portuguese people and landscapes in their work, aligned with the nationalistic fervour that marked this period.
The expressionist paintings of Mário Eloy formed an exception to this tranquil modernism, featuring violent lines, colours and psychological intensity in order to convey hallucination and madness.
Rather than making any dramatic departures, modern sculpture returned to classical references in the works of Francisco Franco, Diogo de Macedo and Canto da Maia, and made its way into the mainstream with the public institution of the authoritarian Estado Novo regime in Portugal (1926–1974). (P.H.)

Neo-Realism and Surrealism
New breakaway movements, reflecting shifts in international art, sprang up against the backdrop of World War II, the Spanish Civil War and the authoritarian Salazar regime.
In the 1940s the worsening of social and cultural conditions and the growth of the political opposition were echoed in the visual arts. Depictions of working life, the poor and the oppressed gained greater prominence through the figurative style exemplified by Gadanheiro, a painting by Júlio Pomar.
The desire for social freedom also gained expression through Surrealism. António Pedro, a signatory of the Dimensionist Manifesto in Paris in 1935, opened the way for Surrealism in this decade by introducing the idea of a reciprocal relationship between poetry and the visual arts, deconstructing what is real and subverting the established canons.
This relationship allowed for experimentation that caused radical divisions in terms of aesthetic approach among the younger generation of artists, with the dreamlike imagination of António Dacosta, Cândido Costa Pinto and Vespeira; the exploration of chance and automatism in the work of Fernando Azevedo and Mário Cesariny; and ambiguous spaces, somewhere between the figurative and the abstract, in the work of Jorge Oliveira. (A.G.)

Abstract Art
In the 1950s, Fernando Lanhas, Nadir Afonso and Rodrigo (at an early stage) broke away from figurative representation, opting instead for geometric abstraction based on mathematical equations to create principles of balance, harmony and order in compositions made up of basic shapes against neutral backgrounds, with harmonious colour schemes and shapes either filled in with block colour or merely outlined.
Other forms of abstraction were practised by Manuel de Assunção, using spaces and atmospheres, and by Joaquim Rodrigo and Carlos Calvet, who concentrated on organic signs. These are also evident in the sculptures of Arlindo Rocha and Jorge Vieira – the latter with strong anthropomorphic references. (A.G.)

New Figuration
New Figuration emerged in the 1960s as a reaction to Abstract Art, going back to the idea of representing a concrete reality.
Created narratives began to appear in the paintings of Rodrigo, with words and basic symbols, and in the work of Paula Rego, with jagged figures grouped together to suggest disquieting meanings. This process is also evident in pieces by Sá Nogueira, although he makes references to popular culture.
Also investing in figurative strategy, Lourdes Castro deployed shadows and the contours of real objects and people, while René Bertholo created mechanical objects that operated like toys, and José Escada produced reliefs using coloured pieces of cut plastic. (A.G.)

The Neo-Avant-Garde
Between the late 1960s and early 1970s Portuguese art broke away from modernist models, using new artistic languages that were aligned with shifts in international art. Artists whose work subverted the traditional concept of painting were particularly prominent within this Neo-Avant-Garde scene.
Issues of visual perception are present in the work of Eduardo Nery, who worked in the realm of Kinetic and Op Art, while Jorge Pinheiro dabbled in Abstract, Kinetic and Pop Art, as well as “shaped canvases”, breaking free from the two-dimensional nature of the painting.
Abstraction is seen again in the work of Ângelo de Sousa and Fernando Calhau, where the very means and historical references of painting serve as a springboard for breaking with tradition.
Gesturalism and the use of signs would be explored in the paintings of João Vieira and António Sena. (E.T.)