Ruy Roque Gameiro (27 February 1906 – 18 August 1935) was a Portuguese sculptor. Although he died relatively young, he won the admiration of critics, particularly José de Figueiredo.

Background

Son of the watercolour master

Alfredo Roque Gameiro Alfredo Roque Gameiro (4 April 1864, Minde (Alcanena), Minde - 15 August 1935, Lisbon) was a Portuguese painter and graphic artist. Biography Alfredo Roque Gameiro was born in Minde, Portugal. When he was ten years old, he went to live in Lis ...

and disciple of José Simões de Almeida (nephew), he attended the auto mechanic course at the Marqués de Pombal Industrial School in

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 ...

, at that time directed by Sanches de Castro. In 1928, he finished the course of the School of Fine Arts of Lisbon, with a proven proof of sculpture under the title Abel and Cain. The following year, he exhibited for the first time in the National Society of Fine Arts – Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes, with two sculptures, Salomé and the head of the painter José Tagarro, the latter soon acquired for the National Museum of Contemporary Art. In 1930, he won the contest for the monument to the dead from the

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Abrantes Abrantes () is a concelho, municipality in the central Médio Tejo Subregion, Médio Tejo subregion of Portugal. The population was 39,325, in an area of . The municipality includes several parishes divided by the Tagus River, which runs through ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, the first to be modelled in concrete. In collaboration with architect Veloso Reis, in 1931 he was awarded first prize by the jury for the selection of a monument to the dead of the First World War for

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(today Maputo), a sculpture that was delivered to the city in 1935. The sculptor won a contest for the realization of a statue of Don Juan II of Portugal, which was erected on Avenida da India, in

. He also participated in the

Salon des Indépendants Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and an alternative name for a living room. The name i ...

, organized in SNBA. He married María Elena Castelo Branco in 1933; and, in the same year, he modelled statues and

bas-reliefs Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

for the design of the monument to

Henry the Navigator Princy Henry of Portugal, Duke of Viseu ( Portuguese: ''Infante Dom Henrique''; 4 March 1394 – 13 November 1460), better known as Prince Henry the Navigator (), was a Portuguese prince and a central figure in the early days of the Portuguese ...

, to be erected in Sagres, designed by the architects Carlos e Guilherme Rebelo de Andrade. He died at the age of 29 in a car accident on the Sintra Road between his motorcycle and a car.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gameiro, Ruy Roque 1906 births 1935 deaths 20th-century Portuguese sculptors Portuguese male sculptors 20th-century Portuguese male artists