Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro (

Almada Almada () is a city and a municipality in Portugal, located on the southern margin of the Tagus River, on the opposite side of the river from Lisbon. The two cities are connected by the 25 de Abril Bridge. The population in 2011 was 174,030, in a ...

, 21 November 1857 – Lisbon, 6 November 1929), who is usually referred to as Columbano, was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Realist painter. Usually considered the greatest Portuguese painter of the 19th century, he has been compared to the likes of

Wilhelm Leibl Wilhelm Maria Hubertus Leibl (October 23, 1844 – December 4, 1900) was a German realist painter of portraits and scenes of peasant life. Biography Leibl was born in Cologne, where his father was the director of the Cathedral choir. He was a ...

and John Singer Sargent.

Life and work

Columbano was the son of romantic painter, Manuel Maria Bordalo Pinheiro, and the younger brother of the great caricaturist,

Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro (21 March 1846 – 23 January 1905; spelled Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro in older Portuguese orthography) was a Portuguese artist known for his illustration, caricatures, sculpture, and ceramics designs. Bordalo Pinheiro ...

. He became the leading painter of his generation and the master of

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

in Portuguese painting, specializing in portraiture. He was disciple of his father, of the painter Miguel Ângelo Lupi and the sculptor Simões de Almeida. After attempting twice for a bursar to study abroad finally in 1881 the Countess of Edla, second wife of King Ferdinand II would finance his study in France. There he studied the work of French naturalist, realist and impressionist painters, like

Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...

Manet A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a decentralized type of wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers in wired networks or access points ...

and

Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is espec ...

without losing his distinctive style which is often gloomy and intimist. He joined the "Grupo do Leão" (The Lion's Group), a usual meeting of artists, writers and intellectuals in a Lisbon downtown restaurant called "Leão de Ouro" (The Golden Lion) in order to discuss aesthetic issues and proclaim Naturalism against the academic art of the time. The group also included his brother

, Silva Porto, Marques de Oliveira and José Malhoa. He painted portraits of some of the greatest names of Portuguese society and culture of his time like José Maria de Eça de Queiroz,

Teófilo Braga Joaquim Teófilo Fernandes Braga (; 24 February 1843 – 28 January 1924) was a Portuguese writer, playwright, politician and the leader of the Republican Provisional Government after the overthrow of King Manuel II, as well as the second elect ...

Raul Brandão Raul Germano Brandão (12 March 1867, in Foz do Douro, Porto – 5 December 1930, in Lisbon) was a Portuguese writer, journalist and military officer, notable for the realism of his literary descriptions and by the lyricism of his language. B ...

and had great psychological accuracy in defining the personality of those depicted. His most famous portrait was that of the poet

Antero de Quental Antero Tarquínio do Quental (; old spelling ''Anthero'') (18 April 184211 September 1891) was a Portuguese poet, philosopher, and writer. Do Quental is regarded as one of the greatest poets of his generation and is recognized as one of the most i ...

in 1889. In this haunting work Columbano seems to have anticipated Antero's suicide. Columbano was a well known Republican, so it wasn't surprising that after the Republic proclamation, in 1910, he was invited to design the flag of the new regime and was nominated director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, currently the

Chiado Museum The National Museum of Contemporary Art (Chiado Museum, in Portuguese: ''Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado'' – MNAC) is an art museum located in the Chiado neighbourhood of Lisbon, Portugal. It was created in 1911 and re-inaug ...

, in Lisbon, of which he was in charge from 1914 to 1927. The best collection of his paintings is in the

, in Lisbon. He's also represented in some of the finest Portuguese museums, like the National Museum Soares dos Reis, in Porto.

Selected portraits

Image:Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro 005.jpg,

(1889) Image:Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro_002.jpg, Manuel Gustavo Bordalo Pinheiro (1884) Image:Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro 008.jpg,

(1917) File:Os Presidentes de Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro.jpg,

Manuel de Arriaga Manuel José de Arriaga Brum da Silveira e Peyrelongue (; 8 July 1840 – 5 March 1917) was a Portuguese lawyer, the first attorney-general and the first elected president of the First Portuguese Republic, following the deposition of King Ma ...

(c.1912)

External links

Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro - at Google Arts & Culture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bordalo Pinheiro, Columbano 1857 births 1929 deaths Realist painters People from Lisbon 19th-century Portuguese painters Portuguese male painters 19th-century Portuguese male artists 20th-century Portuguese painters 20th-century Portuguese male artists