European Art and Old Masters

Note

A leading figure of the Portuguese modernist movement, Carlos Botelho was born in Lisbon in 1899. In addition to his work as a comic artist and caricaturist—which from 1928-1950 included weekly contributions to Sempre Fixe, a publication of humor and social and political satire—he was an acclaimed painter. Widely exhibited and well awarded throughout his career, Botelho participated in a number of important solo and group shows including, most notably, the Venice Biennale in both 1950 and 1960.

Departing Portugal for Paris in 1929, Botelho enrolled at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Montparnasse. That same year, upon redoubling his commitment to painting, he produced the first in a series of views of Lisbon—a subject that would preoccupy him for the remainder of his career. Sampling the formal vocabularies of Expressionism and Cubism, the present lot offers a broad panorama of the artist’s native city. Rooflines overlap and intersect as they cascade downward from the Church of Santo Estêvão, its Baroque-style belltower silhouetted against a loosely described sky. Pink, orange and buff-colored façades—rhythmic in their juxtaposition—allude to the energy and vitality of the city below.