Maria Alice da Silva Jorge (1924 — 2008) was a Portuguese painter, engraver, ceramicist, and book illustrator and co-author of a book on engraving for students. Initially following a neorealist style, her work later became more abstract. One of the most important personalities in the Portuguese engraving renewal movement of the 1950s, she was banned from teaching art for 19 years because of her support for the families of political prisoners.

Early life

Jorge was born in 1924 in the Portuguese capital of

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

. She attended the António Arroio School of Applied Arts and, later, the '' Escola Superior de Belas-Artes de Lisboa'' (1946-1954). To complete her studies in architectural drawing she attended the ''Escola de Belas-Artes do Porto'' (Porto School of Fine Arts) in 1948. She studied pedagogy at the Faculty of Arts of the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; ) is a public university, public research university in Lisbon, and Portugal's largest university. It was founded in 1911, but the university's present structure dates to the 2013 merger of the former Universit ...

in 1952 and 1953, and was a technical education teacher between 1951 and 1955. Between 1954 and 1961 she was married to the artist

Júlio Pomar Júlio Artur da Silva Pomar, GOL, GCM (10 January 1926 – 22 May 2018) was a Portuguese painter and visual artist. He was considered by leading art historian José-Augusto França as the greatest Portuguese painter of his generation. Early ...

Career

Jorge began exhibiting her works in the 1950s at the ''Exposições Gerais de Artes Plásticas'' (General Exhibition of Plastic Arts – EGAP). In addition to engraving, painting, and drawing, she worked in ceramics, tiles, glass and tapestry. She was also a book illustrator, collaborating on works by authors such as Aquilino Ribeiro, David Mourão-Ferreira and Matilde Rosa Lopes de Araújo. She illustrated Portuguese editions of ''

The Decameron ''The Decameron'' (; or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human Comedy (drama), comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy, Comedy'' "''D ...

'', the ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poetry, narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of ...

'',

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelist ...

' '' Exemplary Novels'', and ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition ( ...

''. She was also responsible for the illustrations in the anthologies of Portuguese poets organized by

José Régio José Maria dos Reis Pereira (17 September 1901 – 22 December 1969), better known by the pen name José Régio ( ), was a Portuguese writer who spent most of his life in Portalegre (1929 to 1962). He was the brother of Júlio Maria dos Reis ...

in the early 1960s. In the 1950s her engravings often recorded scenes of everyday life, people at work and the role of women, being referred to as "the woman who showed us women". Her attempt to give dignity to the lives of the working classes is most evident in this period. In 1955, by order of the dictatorial '' Estado Novo'' government, she was dismissed from the school in which she was teaching printmaking, painting and drawing and was not allowed to be employed by the government until after the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

in 1974. Her "offence" was to help families of political prisoners. 1955 also marked the time she started to engrave nudes. In 1956 Jorge joined an

atelier An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or vi ...

in Praça da Alegria, Lisbon with the sculptors Vasco Pereira da Conceição and Maria Barreira, together with Pomar. In the same year, she was one of the founders of ''Gravura – Sociedade Cooperativa de Gravadores Portugueses'' (Cooperative Society of Portuguese Engravers) and was a member of its board of directors from 1956 to 1968. In the second half of the 1960s her work became more abstract, and she was increasingly concentrating on oil and watercolour painting. She received a scholarship from the

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One of the wealthiest charitable founda ...

for a visit to Paris from 1968 to 1970, and another from 1976 to 1978 in Portugal, to create an album on engraving techniques. Alongside her artistic activity, she ran engraving courses and, in the 1980s, published, with Maria Gabriel, the book ''Técnicas da Gravura Artística''. She was a member of the Technical Council of the National Society of Fine Arts (1980-1984). Jorge's work is to be found in the National Museum of Contemporary Art and in the

Calouste Gulbenkian Museum The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum houses one of the world's most important private art collections. It includes works from Ancient Egypt to the early 20th century, spanning the arts of the Islamic art, Islamic World, China and Japan, as well as the F ...

in Lisbon and at the ''Centre Culturel Portugais / Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian'' in Paris, among others.

Awards and honours

In June 1993, Jorge was awarded the rank of Officer of the Order of St. James of the Sword for artistic merit.

Death

Jorge died on the weekend of February 16 and 17, 2008 in Lisbon. She was buried at the Alto de São João Cemetery in Lisbon.

Solo exhibitions

The following is a list of Jorge's solo exhibitions. *1960 – Painting and engraving. ''Cooperativa Gravura'', Lisbon. *1963 – Painting.

Diário de Notícias () is a Portuguese weekly newspaper published in Lisbon, Portugal. Established since 1864, the paper is considered a newspaper of record for Portugal. History and profile ''Diário de Notícias'' was first published in Lisbon on 29 December 1 ...

Gallery, Lisbon. *1968 – Engraving. ''Cooperativa Gravura'', Lisbon. *1971 – Engraving, drawing, painting. São Francisco Gallery, Lisbon. *1972 – Painting. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon. *1977 – Painting and watercolours. Costa do Sol Tourism Board. *1978 – Painting and drawing. ''Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes'', Lisbon. *1980 – Painting and watercolours. ''Galeria Tempo'', Lisbon. *1980 – Painting and watercolours. Alvarez Gallery,

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

. *1982 – Painting, watercolours and drawing. Ana Isabel Gallery, Lisbon. *1985 – Painting. Diário de Notícias Gallery, Lisbon. *1986 – Watercolours and drawing. Bertrand Gallery, Lisbon and Porto. *1991 – Painting and watercolours. Teatro Romano Gallery, Lisbon. *1991 – Painting and watercolours. Romantic House-Museum, Porto. *2013 – Retrospective of neorealist period. Museum of Neo-Realism,

Vila Franca de Xira Vila Franca de Xira (), officially the City of Vila Franca de Xira (), is a city and municipality in the Lisbon District in Portugal. The population in 2021 was 137,659, in an area of 318.19 km2. Situated on both banks of the Tagus River, ...

References

External links

Examples of the work of Alice Jorge
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jorge, Alice 1924 births 2008 deaths Portuguese political artists Portuguese activists 20th-century Portuguese women painters 21st-century Portuguese women painters Portuguese women educators Portuguese women illustrators Portuguese women engravers People from Lisbon 20th-century Portuguese illustrators 21st-century Portuguese illustrators Portuguese ceramists Portuguese children's book illustrators Portuguese women children's book illustrators Portuguese fantasy artists Illustrators of fairy tales 20th-century Portuguese engravers 21st-century Portuguese engravers