Made in 1913, the decorative panels at Cunha Taylors, in downtown Lisbon, are the first important order by commercial companies to José de Almeida Negreiros, then only twenty years old. These works are his first oil paintings, made to scale, and they are a set of four, the other two belonging to the collection of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (CGF). In these two paintings, we find an outdated narrative, represented by clothing of the beginning of the previous century or from the 17th century, whereas in the pair at the CGF collection, the characters are dressed according to the fashion of the beginning of the 20th century. Both groups show in each canvas simple scenes composed by a pair of figures, one masculine and the other feminine, apparently in love. The panel subtitled - Beijo
(Kiss) shows the moment of an apparently fleeting encounter, where a man manages to steal a kiss from the hand of the feminine figure. In accordance with the set of four panels, the woman stands equal with the man; however, in this scene, she looks superior - proud, confident, with a modern and bohemian attitude, a frequent theme in Almada's initial production. In the other panel, we see a couple who is apparently walking their pets, as if in a nocturnal and fortuitous promenade. Even though the characters are wearing clothes from a previous era, the pictorial and aesthetic treatment is modern, with a chromatic economy in which dry shades and neutral backgrounds of graphic dimension predominate. In the - Kiss
, the feminine figure with long and thin arms is highlighted in the foreground, but her face is defined with minimum references. An essential path to formal innovation, drawing represented a medium of experimentation to the modernists, accompanied by the German and decadent influences that taint the compositions. Based on these principles, these panels are the result of an elegant and fluid stroke, in which the colour spots interact in a contrasting and balanced way with the graphics of their decorative elements. With a cosmopolitan atmosphere imbued with nonchalance, elegance and subtle refinement, these paintings follow the necessary requisites of an advertising commercial that would appeal to the Taylor's target audience, no doubt urban and well off, inviting them to buy.



RD