Artworks
Varina [Fishwife]
other
Date
1934
Technique
Indian ink on paper
Dimensions
32,1 x 22,3 cm
Carlos Botelho (1899-1982) began his artistic career in the 1920's with illustration and caricature.
Throughout the 1930's, Carlos Botelho also made a more intimate type of drawing in family portraits and, from the end of that decade, his drawing was imbued of social commentary together with the creation of the image of Lisbon which would make his painting renowned. If the characters and scenes that capture the attention of his drawing in the 1940's may bring him close to some of the neo-realistic ideas, in the 1950's and 1960's the figures of the city assume a personal style, with a geometric stroke that eludes or erases social disquiet.
This work is an example of this style. Its strokes are mobilized for the capture of movement, making above all evident the agile sturdiness of the fish wife. The dynamic movement results from the crossing of the diagonals of her legs and arms, stabilized by the central axis of the body and head, with the pannier on top. The delicate lines that define the clothes and the shaded planes where they are intensified, suggest the movement and volumetric of the figure, and they also create a very particular rhythm that animates this composition.
LC
Throughout the 1930's, Carlos Botelho also made a more intimate type of drawing in family portraits and, from the end of that decade, his drawing was imbued of social commentary together with the creation of the image of Lisbon which would make his painting renowned. If the characters and scenes that capture the attention of his drawing in the 1940's may bring him close to some of the neo-realistic ideas, in the 1950's and 1960's the figures of the city assume a personal style, with a geometric stroke that eludes or erases social disquiet.
This work is an example of this style. Its strokes are mobilized for the capture of movement, making above all evident the agile sturdiness of the fish wife. The dynamic movement results from the crossing of the diagonals of her legs and arms, stabilized by the central axis of the body and head, with the pannier on top. The delicate lines that define the clothes and the shaded planes where they are intensified, suggest the movement and volumetric of the figure, and they also create a very particular rhythm that animates this composition.
LC
