Portuguese modernity, self-portrait and domestic intimacy · 1866 -1922

Frontal self-portraits, silent interiors and allotment gardens make Aurélia de Sousa a singular voice of Portuguese modernity around 1900.

Aurélia de Sousa was born in Chile in 1866 into a Portuguese family and grew up in Porto from childhood. She began with private lessons, then entered the Academia Portuense in Belas-Artes at the age of twenty-seven, which she attended from 1893 to 1899. Financially supported by her family, she then left for Paris and studied at the Académie Julian with Jean-Paul Laurens and Benjamin-Constant. She then visited several European countries with her sister Sofia, also a painter, before returning to Portugal. Aurélia developed a discreet career, on the relative fringes of the official Porto networks, while regularly participating in group exhibitions. Her work embraces portraits, self-portraits, landscapes, still life and domestic scene. The family, Quinta da China's house, the garden and the views towards the Douro provide him with constant motifs. His Self-Portrait around 1900, now classified as a National Treasure in Portugal, breaks with worldly conventions. The perfectly frontal face appears like a light mask on a black background, while the red jacket, symmetry and direct gaze affirm an identity difficult to reduce. In interiors and family portraits, natural light reveals a restrained psychology and attention to ordinary objects. In interiors and family portraits, natural light reveals a restrained psychology and attention to ordinary objects. In interiors and family portraits, natural light reveals a restrained psychology and attention to ordinary objects. In interiors and family portraits, natural light reveals a restrained psychology and attention to ordinary objects. In interiors and family portraits, natural light reveals a restrained psychology and attention to ordinary objects. In interiors and family portraits, natural light reveals a restrained psychology and attention to ordinary objects. In interiors and family portraits, natural light reveals a restrained psychology and attention to ordinary objects. In interiors and family portraits, natural light reveals a restrained psychology and attention to ordinary objects. In interiors and family portraits, natural light reveals a restrained psychology and attention to ordinary objects. In interiors and family portraits, natural light personal, radical and secret language. She died in Porto in 1922. The "Aurélia de Sousa" selection offers its own journey on this subject. His reading favors color.

Aurélia de Sousa does not ask the portrait to beautify: frontality, silence and color construct a presence which looks at the viewer as much as it reveals itself.