The artist Edmundo Cruz, whose work was marked by paintings of landscapes and rural crafts, died on Wednesday at the age of 96 at the Amadora-Sintra Hospital, a source from the Servilusa funeral home told Lusa today.
The painter was born in Lisbon on February 28, 1928 and lived in Colares, in the municipality of Sintra. He received several awards, including the Sintra Municipal Merit Silver Medal in 2001 and the Sintra Municipal Merit Medal – 1st Degree – Gold in 2003.
The artist’s funeral ceremonies will take place from Friday, from 18:00 to 23:00, when he will be buried in the Chapel of São Sebastião, in Colares, and the funeral will take place on Saturday, at 12:00, at the Rio de Mouro Crematorium, according to the same source.
According to the biography made available by the funeral home, at the beginning of his career, Edmundo Cruz studied at the Nautical School, where he completed a naval engineer’s course when he was 20, and worked as a machine engineer for the Portuguese merchant navy.
During his time as an engineer, he created a machine that allowed fabrics to be printed vertically on both sides. In the 1970s, he assigned the patent to a British company and traveled all over the world to coordinate assembly in various factories.
He lived in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, where he managed a fabric printing company and was part of a team of textile designers, while also working for magazines and taking his first professional steps in painting.
He held solo exhibitions in various countries and returned to Portugal shortly before the April 25 revolution. He even worked as a page designer for the Correio da Manhã newspaper.
The strong brushstrokes and the expression of the characters are some of the characteristics of Edmundo Cruz’s paintings. He painted mainly in oil on canvas and watercolor, inspired by the landscapes of Sintra and the Alentejo, with motifs of rural life, fishing and maritime life.
His work is represented in private and public collections in the United States, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, Holland and Italy.
