Born in Lisbon (May 13, 1899 - December 15, 1983), Sarah Affonso spent her childhood in Viana do Castelo, Minho, which will be decisive to her festive colour use and to inspire a significant part of her imagination. Returning to Lisbon only in 1914, in 1915 she began her studies at the School of Fine Arts. A good review on her works shown in a group exhibition in 1923, led her to Paris. Studying at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, she attended all the cultural life events she could, from theatre to dance, ateliers of artists, and museums. Her discovery of the work of Matisse would stay and dazzle her, and his influence will show on her painting, drawing, and even on her landscape project for Quinta da Lameirinha, a property she bought with her husband, artist Almada Negreiros.
Her mother's health problems forced her to return to Lisbon, in 1924. Participating in the modernists' exhibitions in 1926, she showed both painting and embroidery, thus stating the versatility and modernity of her creations. In 1928, she organized her first solo exhibition. In spite of all the good reviews, she returned to Paris disappointed with the national panorama. Her work “Meninas” is shown at the Salon d'Automne of 1928, with prominence and good lighting. In spite of these auspicious beginnings her mother’s poor health compelled her to return to Lisbon, in 1929.
For several years Sarah made a living depicting friends and family, in modern and assertive portraits, illustrating books, namely for works by Fernanda de Castro, Teresa Leitão de Barros, or Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, and magazines such as Civilização and Eva. She also designed tapestry cards and ceramic projects. After some years, the impossibility of a making a living with painting made her devote herself, with special notoriety and innovation, to embroidery, illustration and ceramics, in addition to the landscape design of Quinta da Lameirinha.
Her work is represented, among other collections, in the Modern Collection of FCG and in the National Museum of Contemporary Art.
EF, dezembro 2020
