Artworks
Marinha [Seascape]
painting
Date
c. 1905
Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
153 x 295,6 cm (tríptico - 153 x 74,5 cm; 153 x 146,7 cm; 153 x 74,4 cm)
As my family said, when they asked my great-great-grandfather, João Vaz, why he always left home so early, he answered that it was - to catch and observe the light.
A naturalist painter par excellence, his work is dominated above all by marine landscapes. In his favourite subject, which characterises the production from 1880 onwards, the remarkable luminous, atmospheric treatment and understanding of shades stands out, which would support the positive reviews he received. The light, fundamental for all naturalists, gains a new meaning through the hand and gaze of João Vaz. My great-great-grandfather, in his tremendous capacity of observation and assimilation of the natural, fixed in his sea paintings the atmospheres he saw, transmitting the luminosity in a very personal way, as well as a sensation of serenity, characteristic of his personality, which the observer, and the figures who inhabit the work, share.
The work - Marinha
(c. 1905) shares these aspects, like so many others carried out around the same years. See another one - Marinha
(c. 1905, cat. 294), also present in the exhibition João Vaz - Um Pintor do Naturalismo (Casa-Museu Anastácio Gonçalves, 2005) and in the respective catalogue, which will have served as a study for the work in question and for another triptych that the artist made in the same year, for the redecoration of the Café Leão d'Ouro (Marinha, Lavradio, 1905, cat. 74). However, little is known about the history of the - Marinha
in question, and it is reasonable to consider that this was a private commission.
This large triptych reflects what is most common in Vaz compositions: On the central and right side panel, the sailing boats are anchored in the river, with their soft and unavoidable reflections; the sea and sky surface is at the centre, on the sharp horizon line, which is interrupted by the masts, the only elements that grant verticality to the composition; among the play of fills and voids, the figure of the shellfish gather and other small boats in the distance, on the left panel, balance the composition, demonstrating an understanding of typically Portuguese coastal customs; the scintillation of the waters opposes the static of the sky (portraying here a less luminous day than in other works), using a play of simple tones.
A naturalist painter par excellence, his work is dominated above all by marine landscapes. In his favourite subject, which characterises the production from 1880 onwards, the remarkable luminous, atmospheric treatment and understanding of shades stands out, which would support the positive reviews he received. The light, fundamental for all naturalists, gains a new meaning through the hand and gaze of João Vaz. My great-great-grandfather, in his tremendous capacity of observation and assimilation of the natural, fixed in his sea paintings the atmospheres he saw, transmitting the luminosity in a very personal way, as well as a sensation of serenity, characteristic of his personality, which the observer, and the figures who inhabit the work, share.
The work - Marinha
(c. 1905) shares these aspects, like so many others carried out around the same years. See another one - Marinha
(c. 1905, cat. 294), also present in the exhibition João Vaz - Um Pintor do Naturalismo (Casa-Museu Anastácio Gonçalves, 2005) and in the respective catalogue, which will have served as a study for the work in question and for another triptych that the artist made in the same year, for the redecoration of the Café Leão d'Ouro (Marinha, Lavradio, 1905, cat. 74). However, little is known about the history of the - Marinha
in question, and it is reasonable to consider that this was a private commission.
This large triptych reflects what is most common in Vaz compositions: On the central and right side panel, the sailing boats are anchored in the river, with their soft and unavoidable reflections; the sea and sky surface is at the centre, on the sharp horizon line, which is interrupted by the masts, the only elements that grant verticality to the composition; among the play of fills and voids, the figure of the shellfish gather and other small boats in the distance, on the left panel, balance the composition, demonstrating an understanding of typically Portuguese coastal customs; the scintillation of the waters opposes the static of the sky (portraying here a less luminous day than in other works), using a play of simple tones.