Porto seamstress

We do not know either the name or the status of the girl who served as the model for this beautiful painting, although its title (recorded in the museum’s former catalogue) points to a humble profession. Nor do we know the date when the picture was painted, and which it is also impossible to propose, since no systematic inventory has yet been made of António Carneiro’s body of work, which could help us to make certain suggestions regarding the chronology and themes of his work.
The painter depicts the young girl (almost a child), describing, with tactile enthusiasm, the humble nature of her garments, which are, however, heavily marked in red on the cape and neck scarf. In contrast, the focus here is on framing the discreet look of concentration on her face. The girl is walking, slightly bent by the weight of the enormous umbrella that both protects her and enlarges her, in a subtle game which creates a rare scenographic effect in the artist’s work. The different hues from the spectrum of colours – blues, reds and pinks – intermingle with one another in an effective gesticulation, and the absence of any actual floor accentuates the pregnant nature of the framing that the artist has chosen: the round body of the umbrella is a metaphor of suggested femininity, its diagonally placed handle crossing through the girl’s body, highlighting the hand that is holding it and affording greater dynamism to the whole of the composition.
From a stylistic point of view, the narrative nature of the themes points to a naturalist aesthetics, which the painter never completely abandoned, but its chromatic realisation directs our attention to symbols: the girl represents her humble condition and is a figure of solitude, simultaneously pure and desirous.
Raquel Henriques da Silva