'Actuality'

Social injustices are a fundamental aspect of the artist's work; in his newspapers, he denounces the poverty that afflicted the vast majority of the Portuguese population. This illustration comments on the theme ‘indifference masks misery’, which was a reality at the turn of the 20th century in which parties frequented by Lisbon's high society ‘obscured’ the miserable reality of the country. In the image, a feminine figure holds out a mask at her fingertips, depicting the figure of an upper class child, immaculately groomed and clothed, behind which a tattered woman cowers, holding a famished baby at her breast. Between them is Zé Povinho, sleeping atop an enormous bunch of grapes and oblivious to the entire scene as a pair of crows, symbols of ill foreboding, look on. In the background, various figures can be seen dancing and having a ball, indifferent to what is going on around them. The new artistic style of Art Nouveau can be seen in the motifs and graphics, which accentuate the contrasts and testify to the artist's modernity.