The Lisbon Art and Antiques Fair (LAAF) will return to the Cordoaria Nacional, in Lisbon, between April 12 and 21, in an edition with 34 exhibitors and works by artists such as Domingos Sequeira and Vieira da Silva, according to the organization.
In what will be the biggest edition ever in its 20-year history, the art and antiques fair will occupy the entire Cordoaria space for the first time, once again organized by the Portuguese Antique Dealers Association (APA).
Most of the space will be occupied by Portuguese exhibitors, but also foreigners, from antique dealers to modern and contemporary art galleries, with paintings, sculpture, jewelry, furniture, ceramics and sculpture.
Among the works on display at the fair will be a drawing of King John VI by the Portuguese artist Domingos Sequeira (1768-1837), with an inscription by the collector Luiz Xavier da Costa, dated 1929, belonging to the António Costa Antiguidades gallery.
Contacted by the Lusa news agency, Alexandra Markl, head of the drawing and engraving collections at the National Museum of Ancient Art (MNAA) in Lisbon, said of this pencil drawing on paper measuring 21 centimeters by 17 centimeters: “We know that this is a drawing from 1804, when he was not yet king, but prince regent, and we know that this piece is a study for a medal because at the MNAA we have a drawing just like it, although it has the painter’s signature inverted.”
“This means that our drawing is the counter-evidence to this one. Back then, when artists created a drawing to engrave, in this case for a medal, they would reverse the work to the positive. The MNAA has the counter-proof, and this drawing that will be at the fair is the original,” explained the art historian, adding that this work “is more subtle, which also indicates that this is where it started, before making the counter-proof, in the process of working on the medal.”
Domingos Sequeira is considered to be the most talented and original Portuguese painter of his time, having played a fundamental role in the development of Portuguese art at the beginning of the 19th century.
In March, the Ministry of Culture announced the signing of an agreement for the public exhibition of the painting “Descida da Cruz”, acquired by the Livraria Lello Foundation after it failed to buy the work.
“Domingos Sequeira, as a royal painter, had several opportunities to draw and paint King John VI, and several different portraits are known, from the prince regent phase to the last years of the monarch’s death,” Alexandra Markl told Lusa.
The drawing has a legend indicating that it was in the possession of the collector and scholar of the artist’s work – Xavier da Costa – dated 1929, and signed by the owner.
“It also has something very curious: a small stamp, in black ink, with the number 45. We know that this stamp was placed by one of the branches of Domingos Sequeira’s family. The artist’s descendants stamped all the drawings that belonged to a family fund,” explained the art historian, adding that “Sequeira worked a lot, made many models for statuary, medals, goldsmithery, and left a very vast production.”
Contacted by Lusa, a source in the fair’s communications department said that in addition to this drawing, two works by the artist Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908-1992) will also be on display at the fair: a painting entitled “Essa Estrela”, by Galeria São Roque, and a drawing on paper by Galeria São Mamede.
The oil on canvas “Essa Estrela”, measuring 33 centimeters by 24.5 centimeters, was chosen by the artist to create a tapestry for the chapel of the French Embassy in Lisbon, where it is currently located.
The drawing executed in 1968 has the particularity of being a work that returns to Portugal from the United States of America, having been a gift from the artist to John Rewald in New York, with a dedication of friendship.
Among others, the galleries Carlos Carvalho Arte Contemporânea, São Mamede, Luís Alegria, Miguel Arruda Antiguidades, Espadim 1985, Alba Cabrera, Anfora Asian Art, Achronima, José Sanina Antiquário, Galerie Philippe Mendes, Trema Arte Contemporânea, Tricana, Rui Freire, Joana Aranha, Ilídio Cruz, Isabel Lopes da Silva and D’Orey Azulejos e Antiguidades will also be present.
The LAAF will also be organizing “Conversations on Art” between April 15 and 19, always in the late afternoon, on the themes of “The importance of museums in the city of Lisbon”, “Creativity and Development”, and “Imagination and Commerce”, with various guest speakers.
