Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso

Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso Ferreira was born on 14th of November 1887 in Manhufe, near Amarante, Portugal.

Amadeo’s father was a rural landowner and his family was a wealthy one, so they could give their son a good education.

There were 9 children in Cardoso’s family and Amadeo was the fifth. His maternal uncle, Francisco José Ferreira Lopes Cardoso, affectionately nicknamed “Uncle Chico”, supported him since he was young.

Amadeo’s father wanted his son to become a lawyer and he sent him to the law school at the University of Coimbra.But the boy always dreamt of painting and in 1905 he abandoned his studies of law.

In 1905 Amadeo went to Lisbon to take courses in architecture at Lisbon Academy of Fine Arts. There  he developed the activity of designer and above all the caricaturist skill, immediately supported and enjoyed by his friend Manuel Laranjeira. During June and July of the following year he successfully completed three subjects of design drawing: Geometric linear design – 11 values; Drawing by ornament pattern – 13 points; Figure drawing by stamping – 18 values.

The course in architecture did not satisfy Amadeo’s creative genius and in 1906 he left for Paris with the intention to continue studying.

Amadeo lived in the Boulevard de Montparnasse and attended workshops of preparation for the contest to the School of Fine Arts.

In 1908 the young man rented the studio nr. 21, in 14 Cité Falguière where he brought together Portuguese artists – Manuel Bentes, Emmérico Nunes, Eduardo Viana, Domingos Rebelo, and Francisco Smith .Domingos Rebelo told in the interview:“ […] the studio of Amadeo de Sousa Cardoso, at the 14 Cité Falguière, who was the one of us that lived with greater abundance, because he was son of a wealthy family from Amarante […]became an assembly center.”

Later that year (1908) Amadeo met Lucia Pecetto with whom he would get married in Portugal in 1914.

In Paris Amadeo met and got acquainted with such artist as Amedeo Modigliani, Constantin Brancusi, Alexander Archypenko, Sonya and Robert Delaunay,Diego Rivera, Juan Gris and Picasso.

In 1911 Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso exhibited his works at the Salon des Independence in Paris. Later, in 1913 he participated with 8 works in the exhibition in New York, then in Chicago and Boston. In 1914 Amadeo sent 3 works to the London Salon, an exhibition which however had not taken place due to the start of the First World War.

Amadeo returned to Portugal, splitting his time between maternal house and the house in Espinho.In Manhufe, Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso worked at Casa do Ribeiro that belonged to his uncle Francisco.He also experimented painting with new forms of expression.

In 1916 Amadeo published a selection of “12 Reproductions” (Porto, Tipografia Santos). In Lisbon, the painter met with José de Almada Negreiros and Grupo da Revista Orpheu, a magazine that intended to publish the reproductions of Amadeo’s artworks. The same year the artist held two exhibitions in Portugal.The first, in November, in Porto, was entitled:“Abstraccionismo”. It was composed by 84 oil paintings and wax, 19 watercolors and 11 drawings. In Lisbon, the same exhibition took place in the Liga Naval.It  had no title and was accompanied by a text / manifest written by Almada Negreiros.

In 1918 a skin disease impeded Amadeo of painting. On 25th October  1918 Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, a pioneer of modern art, who continued on the path set by the artists of avant-garde of his time, died suddenly in Espinho, a victim of “pneumonic” plague that ravaged Europe at the end of World War I. Despite the brevity of his life, his work has become immortal.