Lot 313: AMADEO DE SOUZA-CARDOSO

1887-1918 PAYSAGE CUBISTE signed A. De Souza Cardoso (lower left) oil on board 16.6 by 23.8cm., 6Â by 9 3/8 in. Painted circa 1914.

Lucia de Souza-Cardoso (wife of the artist) Galerie Robert-Briant, Paris Private Collection, France

Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, often known simply as Amadeo, was one of the few pioneers of Portuguese Modernism at the turn of the 20th Century. Following academic training in Lisbon he moved to Paris in 1906 where he soon began to experiment with the flattened, linear style of the Parisian avant-garde. In 1911 he exhibited with Amadeo Modigliani in Paris, and in 1913 striking Cubist examples of his work, including portraits and landscapes, were shown at the Armory Show in New York and the Sturm Gallery in Berlin. Deeply affected by the outbreak of the First World War Amadeo returned to Portugal where he worked in isolation, only rarely exhibiting the bright complex collaged compositions produced in later life. Variously labelled ‘Orphist’, ‘Futurist’ and ‘Cubist’, Amadeo is rare for his rapid and keen understanding and skilful handling of the Modernist aesthetic in painting.