This panel, of a cut-out format, is signed by Jorge Colaço and dates from Lisbon, 21st of December 1933. The panel represents the harvesting of grapes and is a part of the type of mores painting that made Jorge Colaço famous. In the foreground we can see women cutting the bunches of grapes, while in the background we find an ox cart with a wood barrel and women with wooden trays on top of their heads, full of grapes, seeming to form a line to drop the grapes into the wood barrel. The panel is framed in the baroque revivalist style, trompe l’oeil architecture and shell shapes, evoking the intitial rococo period, all painted in shades of blue over a white background. As for the base of the panel, it shows five horizontal rows of polychrome tiles and the frieze combines ferronneries with rolled leaves and flowers.
Jorge Colaço (1868-1942) An artist, caricaturist and painter, who specialized in tile painting, was one of the best and most influential portuguese artists of the end of the 19th Century and the first third of the 20th Century. He played an outstanding role in the history of the Portuguese tile industry, which he, to a large extent, revived and reinvented, although he was almost always inspired by the country’s traditional tiles. It was in the early years of the 20th century that Jorge Colaço began to experiment with painting on tiles. This and other tile applications of Quinta do Pico da Abelheira signed by Jorge Colaço are from the phase in which he mostly collaborated with Fábrica Lusitânia, in Lisbon, although he also worked independently.
Masonry fountain with Jorge Colaço’s figurative panel, signed by him but not dated. It is an elaborate design panel, with a predominance of frames inspired by the Baroque taste and surfaces that give the illusion of volume. In the center, over the spout, we have the classic mores scene, of going to the village fountain, when the boys took the opportunity to woo the girls, avoiding the controlling gaze of their parents. The gallant young woman holds a pitcher at her waist, while the man looking at her has a stick in one hand and the hoe in the other, resting on his shoulder. In the background, a donkey is drinking water from the fountain tank and two women glance at the couple. The background is a village. Jorge Colaço (1868-1942) An artist, caricaturist and painter, who specialized in tile painting, was one of the best and most influential portuguese artists of the end of the 19th Century and the first third of the 20th Century. He played an outstanding role in the history of the Portuguese tile industry, which he, to a large extent, revived and reinvented, although he was almost always inspired by the country’s traditional tiles. It was in the early years of the 20th century that Jorge Colaço began to experiment with painting on tiles. This and other tile applications of Quinta do Pico da Abelheira signed by Jorge Colaço are from the phase in which he mostly collaborated with Fábrica Lusitânia, in Lisbon, although he also worked independently.
Fountain with a back crown, simulating a wavy cut edge, evoking the baroque revivalist taste and in the spirit of the “Portuguese House”. Jorge Colaço signed the respective figurative panel, in Lisbon, on the 15th of August 1934. The panel, small in size, represents a gallant scene in a country context: a nobleman with his horse talks to a shepherdess. The panel is monochromatic, painted in blue, and is framed by baroque inspired frames. At the bottom of the panel there is a mask painted in blue, from whose mouth the water comes out into the sink, the latter sculpted in volcanic stone and shaped like a shell. The back panel has a tiled edge, also revealing Jorge Colaço’s style: polychrome and with slight relief, representing a sequence of 4 leafs inscribed in rhombuses, complemented by blue stripes. Below the sink there are also tiles in shades of orange and yellow, which imitate a neoclassical pattern in the shape of quotation marks. In all this tile application, the tradition of Portuguese tiles, especially from the baroque and neoclassical periods, is allied with the innovation brought by Colaço, visible above all in the technique used for the execution of the tiles edges. Jorge Colaço (1868-1942) An artist, caricaturist and painter, who specialized in tile painting, was one of the best and most influential portuguese artists of the end of the 19th Century and the first third of the 20th Century. He played an outstanding role in the history of the Portuguese tile industry, which he, to a large extent, revived and reinvented, although he was almost always inspired by the country’s traditional tiles. It was in the early years of the 20th century that Jorge Colaço began to experiment with painting on tiles. This and other tile applications of Quinta do Pico da Abelheira signed by Jorge Colaço are from the phase in which he mostly collaborated with Fábrica Lusitânia, in Lisbon, although he also worked independently.
Figurative panels by Jorge Colaço, from 1938, on the sides of a volcanic stone bench. One of them is dated February 2nd, 1938 and represents a mores country scene, divided into two parallel scenes: on the left, a woman with a pitcher in front of two haystacks, locally known as “cafuões”, seems to interact with a man positioned next to a loaded donkey; on the right, several men play instruments for other men and women to dance. More men, women and children witness this scene. The figure that connects the two parallel scenes is a woman with a pitcher on her head and another pitcher between her arm and her waist, who also watches the scene next to the animal. The other panel by Jorge Colaço, on the opposite side of the bench, shows a new country scene, though with only one man, on the way, and a woman leaning over the wall. In the foreground is the ox cart loaded with corn, which the man seems to have left so he can talk to the woman. The house where she is staying has a kind of corral, with “cafuões”, a car and beams against the wall. This panel is dated from Lisbon on the 25th of January 1938.
Panel signed by João Alves de Sá. As a curiosity, in portuguese you would be able to tell that it has a spelling error. The author is not identified, but we know that the poet was António Correia de Oliveira (1878-1960). This quatrain appears in other tilled panels from the same time in other agricultural properties in mainland Portugal. The panel in Quinta da Abelheira was probably painted in the Viúva Lamego Factory, even though it is not mentioned in the panel.
This panel is not signed. Painted in blue on a white background, but with pronounced polychrome frames and inspiration from the Baroque Joanine, it has in its center the following verses by Humberto de Bettencourt.
This panel is not signed. With barroque inspired frame, painted in blue over white glazed tiles
Panel allusive to Raposo de Lima’s sonnet ” Súplica “, written in 1953. Also by Victor Câmara, the panel has a minimum frame with curls and the shapes of shells in the upper corners and a slight polychromy with the yellow being added to the traditional blue on white glazed tiles. This panel was made in Cerâmica Vieira, in Lagoa, in 1955. This sonnet shows nostalgia for past times and concern for the rapid changes in the world and its values. One can see a scenario of a rough sea and, in the foreground, a man, a woman and a child, dressed in classic robes. While the man looks at the sea, the woman hugs and protects the child. Victor Câmara (1921-1998), caricaturist and painter, recognised as a skilled watercolourist and portraitist, he attended an industrial school in Ponta Delgada. Victor Câmara became attached to his island of São Miguel and to the Azores in general, whose landscapes, flora and people he often represented in his paintings. In the 1950s, after a successful exhibition held at the National Society of Fine Arts (which awarded him prizes in the watercolor category), he settled in Lisbon. There he continued to paint Azorean themes and to feed nostalgia for his origins. It was precisely in the 1950s that he painted, for Quinta do Pico da Abelheira, this and other panels.
Oval shaped panel applied on a traditional dry, volcanic stone support wall. Painted in blue on white glazed tile, the panel is framed by curls and represents the nymph Flora, goddess of spring, sitting under a tree, by a lake with swans. She is naked and surrounded by flowers, with a basket full of flowers by her side. The panel was painted in 1957 by Victor Câmara, in Cerâmica Vieira, located in Lagoa, São Miguel. This panel also includes a quatrain by Rolando de Viveiros alluding to the beauty of the landscape of the island. Victor Câmara (1921-1998), caricaturist and painter, recognised as a skilled watercolourist and portraitist, he attended an industrial school in Ponta Delgada. Victor Câmara became attached to his island of São Miguel and to the Azores in general, whose landscapes, flora and people he often represented in his paintings. In the 1950s, after a successful exhibition held at the National Society of Fine Arts (which awarded him prizes in the watercolor category), he settled in Lisbon. There he continued to paint Azorean themes and to feed nostalgia for his origins. It was precisely in the 1950s that he painted, for Quinta do Pico da Abelheira, this and other panels.
This panel represents women washing their clothes in a stream, framed by what appear to be hydrangeas – a flower that is the hallmark of São Miguel Island, as it exists along the edges of some of its scenic roads. On the background of the panel, in the upper plan, there is a small town, a religious building standing out from it. This background is painted very much in the line of the Portuguese figurative tile from the first half of the 18th century. The panel is signed by Faiança Battistini de Maria de Portugal, and there is also a monogram, corresponding to the painter, which we could not decipher with precision, due to the degradation of the tile and the overlapping brushstrokes. However, it seems to be the monogram of the painter João Rosa Rodrigues (1892-1962), who collaborated with the said factory in the 1930s and 1940s and was a disciple of Leopoldo Battistini, having also painted on canvas, namely in the watercolor technique. This panel is all painted in blue on white glaze and is different in the sense that the tiles are not square, but rectangular and narrower, certainly to allow a better placement in the concave support. The panel is complemented with a quatrain by Armando Côrtes-Rodrigues allusive to the water. Armando Côrtes-Rodrigues (1891-1971) was born in Vila Franca do Campo and was a writer, playwright, poet and ethnographer.