The sands, the forests and the clouds

António Carvalho da Silva Porto (Porto, 1850 – Lisbon,
1893) is one of the more represented painters in Anastácio Gonçalves' collection. Having returned in 1879 from France, he brought a new style that would reveal to be exceptionally well suited to national taste. He was professor of younger painters, with some of which he formed the so-called "Grupo do Leão" (1881-1889),  because they met in the former Cervejaria Leão de Ouro (Golden Lion Brewery) in Lisbon, nowadays a restaurant. Their portrait can be seen at the National Museum of Contemporary Art / Museum of Chiado, painted in 1885 by Columbano. At the end of the 19th
century, while Portugal's industrialization, Silva Porto executed
several paintings depicting Portuguese landscapes with or without human
presence, in a rural country, with its ethnographical traditions and motifs
associated with rural life. 

Poppies organise visually the emsemble of Spring, as their little spots punctuate the composition with warm colours.

Considered one of Silva Porto's masterpieces, The crop (Lumiar, Lisbon) represents a crop of wheat, after harvesting. The field opens to the immensity of the space that extends, also, in the vastness of the sky, much more than a bluish stain. A moving sky, radiating, traveled by light. The warm shades, in a light game of shadow and light, mark the space in depth.

Lumiar/Alta de Lisboa is now a densely populated neighbourhood of Lisbon, while this painting captured this same area as the rural landscape it was over a century ago.

In 1892, António Ramalho paints the Beach of Leça, displaying the landscape of the north coast of Portugal, the way of living there and some activities connected to the sea.

The chapel is near the ocean for the sailors' prayers, and facing the sky from which good winds may come. António Ramalho left on purpose some parts of the canvas with no paint.

The fisherman stands for the "portrait", carrying a basquet for the fish. The typical black cap protects both from the windy cold and from the sun. Many blueish greens and grey brushes materialize the coast landscape.

Painters such as João Vaz followed Silva Porto's teachings. One third of the canvas is occupied with the sand and the sea of The beach, as two thirds of this marine are dedicated to the sky, which opens the space.

Three women carry wicker basquets filled with seaweed, used as a fertilizer for crops. Their long skirts are rolled up with typical scarves in order to facilitate their movements.

In The beach the sea is not the essential element, but the space is, an atmospheric space, certainly painted in site.

The Beach of Figueira da Foz reveals the newly acquired taste of spending holidays on the beach. Mário Augusto immortalizes the beach of Figueira da Foz, with its extensive sand shore, seen from an elevated perspective, drawing it in its extension, parallel to the sinuous line of the sea. This is a chromatically balanced composition that goes and comes from the neutral shades of the sand to the distant Serra da Boa Viagem (Mountain of the Good Journey). The loose of the brushstroke, in the figurative construction of the landscape, makes the population apparently alleatory with the bathers, throughout the sand and beach tents.

The Beach of Figueira da Foz shows the artist's ability to compose and explore the possibilities of space and treatment of colours and inks. The variety of applications and treatments of colours and inks produces textures and nuances to the general composition.

Anastácio Gonçalves bought several works of this late naturalist painter. Nature capture in Alhadas, Mário Augusto's birthplace. The agaves with linearly defined outlines stand out from the rest of the landscape advancing perceptibly to the foreground. Everything vanishes around it, and this effect is achieved through the spatulation technique, in which the oil paint is spread through a spatula, valuing the spot and the lack of definition of the natural elements. It interprets light by creating luminous focuses that function as disseminating centres.

A detail reveals the drawing work of the cactus (maguey), as well as the referred use of spatula and brush, in order to obtain various types of surfaces, levels and visual effects.

In an architectural aspect, in its amplitude of constructed Portuguese space, are considered two interiors of churches painted by João Vaz. The composition of the Pulpit of the Church of St. John Baptist at Tomar is dominated by vertical lines, balanced by the elements around the pulpit, such as its stairs, the round arch which leads to the side chapel behind, and the two kneeling figures that catch our attention and stand under the suspending lamp. Over all, João Vaz suggests in a plastic way the spiritual experience related to the theme of the painting, as well as he evoques the historic relevance of this particular church.

Though empty, the pulpit of St. John and the pillar that sustains it form the centre of the composition. The embossed pulpit’s decoration, from 1513, points out two symbols - the cross of Christ and the coat of arms of Portugal - related to King Manuel 1st, who was patron of this church.

The Spring, painted in 1882, is a very large painting comparing to the usual intimist scale of Alfredo Keil (1850-1907). The artist combines the natural romantic atmosphere of the Mountain of Sintra, with the sublime sense of Romanticism perfectly expressed in the contrasting scale of the forest and the human figures, emphasized by the shadows of the trees. Anastácio Gonçalves also acquired the preparatory sketch of this work.

Standing facing the trail surrounded by Spring's flowers, a woman and a very little girl - typically dressed - announce the walk through the magnificent forest, representing themselves the rebirth of nature. Both of them wear scarves on the hair and the woman carries a clay vase.

The landscape of Sintra is very well shown, revealing its magical romantic atmosphere.