Signed 'Botelho' bottom right, oil on Masonite
9 ½ x 14 1/8 in. (24.1 x 35.8cm)

Casa dos Dourados, Lisbon, Portugal. 
Private Collection, Massachusetts. 

A leading figure of the Portuguese modernist movement, Carlos Botelho was born in Lisbon in 1899. In addition to his work as a comic artist and caricaturist – which from 1928-1950 included weekly contributions to Sempre Fixe, a publication of humor and social and political satire – he was an acclaimed painter. Widely exhibited and well awarded throughout his career, Botelho participated in several important solo and group shows including, most notably, the Venice Biennale in both 1950 and 1960. He enrolled at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Montparnasse. The subjects of the present paintings – a noteworthy departure for Bothelo whose works often depict his native Portugal, are everyday scenes of Parisian streets with figures rendered in the artist’s signature style in which form is simplified and its linear qualities emphasized.