Artworks
A Mulher e os Galgos [The Woman and the Greyhounds]
painting
Date
c. 1926
Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
100,5 x 200,5 cm
This is a painting made to decorate the Bristol, one of the most modern nightclubs in Lisbon, in Portas de Santo Antão street, founded in 1918 by Mário Ribeiro. Together with the Brasileira of Chiado café, these two commercial institutions were the alternative exhibition rooms to the State exhibition apparel, such as the National Museum of Contemporary Art, where modernist artists like Almada Negreiros, Eduardo Viana, Diogo Macedo, Canto da Maia, António Soares or Lino António could not be seen. The renovation made between 1925 and 1926, under architect Carlos Ramos, updated the interior decoration of the club and included the work - The Woman and the Greyhounds
, together with two other paintings by the same artist: a still life and an interior scene with a woman drinking what looks like a digestive drink. For those who could not be inside the Bristol, this painting was exhibited, together with 13 more works of the club, in the National Society of Fine Arts, at the 2nd Autumn Salon (November 26), organised by José Pacheko, director of the Contemporânea magazine. Looking at Lino António's career and the various orders for public spaces, this is a major work from the initial production of this painter and professor, confirming his chameleonic capacity to adapt to all spaces and demonstrates references from emerging Art Deco - eclectic, decorative and mundane style, which became global after the trauma of the 1st World War. This strong, joyful and sensuous woman, with a sculptural body and volumes, occupies with the two slender and undulating greyhounds a composition of substantial dimensions, where the chromatic contrast is evident and ensures an interesting plastic game between pallets. Side by side with other nudes in the Bristol decoration, these works evoke an atmosphere of lust, intimacy and temporary feminine freedom that was being gradually built in Portuguese society, in which women were eventually allowed to go out at night, smoke, dance and drink.
RD
, together with two other paintings by the same artist: a still life and an interior scene with a woman drinking what looks like a digestive drink. For those who could not be inside the Bristol, this painting was exhibited, together with 13 more works of the club, in the National Society of Fine Arts, at the 2nd Autumn Salon (November 26), organised by José Pacheko, director of the Contemporânea magazine. Looking at Lino António's career and the various orders for public spaces, this is a major work from the initial production of this painter and professor, confirming his chameleonic capacity to adapt to all spaces and demonstrates references from emerging Art Deco - eclectic, decorative and mundane style, which became global after the trauma of the 1st World War. This strong, joyful and sensuous woman, with a sculptural body and volumes, occupies with the two slender and undulating greyhounds a composition of substantial dimensions, where the chromatic contrast is evident and ensures an interesting plastic game between pallets. Side by side with other nudes in the Bristol decoration, these works evoke an atmosphere of lust, intimacy and temporary feminine freedom that was being gradually built in Portuguese society, in which women were eventually allowed to go out at night, smoke, dance and drink.
RD