A obra azulejar de Jorge Rey Colaço (1862-1942) em Portugal

Abstract

Jorge Colaço (1868-1942) was a remarkable multifaceted artist of the first half of the twentieth century. He was born in Tangier into a family of artists, which allowed him to make unusual artistic choices for the time: he did not follow the academic path, the most natural option, in his socio-economic context, preferring instead to go to ateliers of renowned artists in Madrid and Paris. He was an expert illustrator and caricaturist, having directed a humorous supplement of the newspaper O Século (1897-1903). In addition, he founded, directed and carried out artistic work for several newspapers and magazines. He was also an oil painter, having received several medals during his artistic career. At the turn of the century he experimented with a new support for his paintings, the tile, on which he produced panels, which even today are still considered national masterpieces. He initially worked at the Sacavém Crockery Factory, where he remained until 1923, when he moved to the Lusitania Factory in Lisbon. As a tile painter he used the traditional technique but also used the stencil, press, cuerda seca and screen-printing techniques. But most of all he innovated by painting over glazes already fired. The use of this technique by the artist was proven through instrumental means that clarified some of its details. Although "Portugal" was his main topic, he developed very diverse themes in his painting: from historical scenes, to military scenes, historical character, ethnographic scenes (rural and fishing), among others. They were most often the result of his imagination or inspired by episodes of Camonian literature and other writers and artists. Basing himself on hundreds of watercolor studies, which the artist composed in an irreproachable way, Jorge Colaço created almost a thousand panels. In this thesis we catalogued his work in mainland and insular Portugal and, by doing so, followed his journey through life.

Date of Award	25 Mar 2021
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Eduarda Vieira (Supervisor) & João Manuel Mimoso (Co-Supervisor)