Self-Portrait in a Red Coat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.jpg)
Self-Portrait in a Red Coat (Portuguese: Autorretrato) is an oil on canvas painting by the Portuguese painter Aurélia de Souza (1866–1922). Painted around 1900 in Paris, it measures 45 cm high by 36 cm wide. One of the most recognised of paintings by a Portuguese woman artist, it is held in the collection of the Soares dos Reis National Museum in Porto.
De Souza painted several self-portraits during her life. They are usually identified by the features that accompany the portrait. For example, this portrait is known, for obvious reasons, as the red-coat self-portrait, while also well known are her Self-Portrait with Black Ribbon, and the Saint Anthony self-portrait in which she dresses as the saint.[1][2][3]
Over the years the painting has undergone a reassessment. No photograph exists of it prior to 1936, when it occupied an insignificant place in an exhibition of De Souza's work held in the Fine Arts Salon of the Palácio de Cristal in Porto. Within the same exhibition, the painting Self-Portrait with Black Ribbon occupied a dominant position. By 2021, however, when the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation organized an exhibition of Portuguese women's art from 1900 to 2020, called All I Want (Tudo O Que Eu Quero), the red-coat self-portrait appeared on the cover of the catalogue, together with a 1997 painting by Helena Almeida. In 2022, at an exhibition of De Souza’s work in the Soares dos Reis National Museum, reproductions of the painting were available for purchase in the museum shop, as were household items bearing its image. The catalogue cover was of the self-portrait. According to the museum, the artwork now attracts international recognition. It is characterized as an asset of "national interest that merits special protection".[1][2][4][5]