Souza-Cardoso, Amadeo de

(1887-1918)

   Visionary Portuguese painter whose work was the precursor of modern art in Portugal. He was born in Amarante in 1887, into a wealthy family and studied law at Coimbra University. He left Coimbra in 1905, before finishing his law studies, and began studying architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lisbon. He did not find the architecture course stimulating enough and left for Paris in 1906, settling in Montparnasse. At first, he did drawings and caricatures but later dedicated himself to painting. Souza-Cardoso's work can be characterized as impressionist, expressionist, cubist, and futurist. He showed his work in 1910, in Paris, along with Amedeo Modigliani, Constantin Brancusi, and Juan Gris. In 1913, eight of his paintings were displayed at the famous Armory Show in New York City. In 1914, he worked with Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona.

   His time in Spain was ended by the outbreak of the World War I, and he returned to Lisbon, where he began to experiment with new forms of expression. In 1916, he showed 114 cubist works in Oporto and Lisbon. His career was cut short when he contracted pneumonia and died on 25 October 1918. His must famous works are Saut du Lapin (1911), Cabeça (1913), Entrada (1917), and Pintura (1917). In 1935, the Portuguese state established a prize to recognize modernist painters called the "Prémio Souza-Cardoso."