Short term loan of Aurélia de Sousa’s self-portrait to a temporary exhibition at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

The Ministry of Culture and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation requested a loan of the work “Santo António”, by Aurélia de Sousa, to Porto City Hall. This portrait is part of the collection of the Museu da Cidade (Casa Marta Ortigão Sampaio) and is to be displayed in the temporary exhibition themed “Tudo o que eu quero – Artistas portuguesas de 1900 a 2020”.

This is quite common in the Municipality of Porto, and the proposal by Mayor Rui Moreira during the coning Executive Meeting should be approved.

The exhibition will be on show in Lisbon, from 1st June to 23rd August. In the meantime, there is the opportunity to appreciate the painting at Casa Marta Ortigão Sampaio, the place that houses the oil painting by Aurélia de Sousa.

Porto City Hall houses the most important acquis by Aurélia de Sousa at the Casa Marta Ortigão Sampaio. The building, which is now part of the Museu da Cidade, was donated to the Municipality in 1978, by the art collector Marta Ortigão Sampaio, the artist’s niece and great-niece of the writer Ramalho Ortigão.

Adding to the large collection of Aurélia in the house, the walls of that building also keep a jewellery collection and a library. The house opens into a garden, which can be visited at a reduced price or for free, for Porto. card holders.

The lending contract of Aurélia’s self-portrait establishes that the loan “shall indicate that there is an insurance contract” of 250 thousand euros, between the Ministry of Culture and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Find out more about Aurélia de Sousa, whose painting is described as of a personal and naturalist style, with realism, impressionism and post-impressionism influences. She was born in Valparaíso, Chile, the daughter of emigrants, who returned to Portugal, Porto, when Aurélia was only three years old.