The mower

Gadanheiro, created in Évora at the 9th Missão Estética de Férias (an initiative organised by SNBA and directed by Dordio Gomes), is one of the inaugural paintings of the Portuguese neo-realist movement, which broke away from the conservative art scene of the 1940s. The eye focuses on a point located near the scythe, which constitutes the central motif, while the labourer's body extends expressively towards the edges of the painting, disfiguring the proportions of his hand and leg. These distortions, valued in several of the movement's works, allude to references from international art that stretch from German expressionist film to the paintings of Thomas Hart Benton and that only become dynamically problematic in terms of the social informants that envelop the figure of the reaper. Inscribed in this composition is the notion of the power of work and its associations with a strong social conscience, linking an aesthetic stance to political opposition.