Aurélia de Souza Catalogue Raisonné — Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis

Comprising 471 artworks by 107 private owners and nine public entities, the Catalogue Raisonné of Aurélia de Souza (digital version) will be presented on 10 July at 6pm at the Soares dos Reis National Museum, with the support of Círculo Dr. José de Figueiredo and the patronage of the Millennium bcp Foundation.

In 2020, the Soares dos Reis National Museum and the Art History Institute of the New University of Lisbon, in partnership with the Catholic University of Porto, Matosinhos City Council and Porto City Council, began the task of identifying, cataloguing and photographing all the known work of the painter Aurélia de Souza.

A public appeal was made through various communication channels for the owners, many of whom were unknown, to share their artworks, and the task proved to be overwhelming. Aurélia de Souza surprised us with a production of unexpected volume.

‘We have reached more than 470 catalogue numbers - including some works of which we have photographs but could not locate - although the production is still greater, which means that this is not a closed study, as its digital catalogue character makes it clear that regular revisions are to be expected,’ says art historian and project coordinator Raquel Henriques da Silva.

This version of the Catalogue Raisonné includes some of the photographs by Aurélia de Souza, which belong to the set of around two hundred glass negatives recently acquired by the Commission for the Acquisition of Works of Art for National Museums and Palaces, to enrich the collection of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, which already includes several objects by Aurélia de Souza, including the Self-Portrait, classified as a National Treasure.

‘This photographic collection has yet to be inventoried and studied, but as it contributes to the full appreciation of the artist, it was decided to include some of the photographs in the catalogue, as documentation associated with other works,' says Raquel Henriques da Silva.

The Catalogue Raisonné of Aurélia de Souza (1866-1922) is one of the activities carried out as part of the commemoration of the centenary of her death, which also included the exhibitions Aurélia de Souza 1866-1922 Life and Secret and Aurélia de Souza AS CASAS, as well as an international congress whose proceedings will be published later this year.

The survey and study of Aurélia's complete oeuvre was carried out over the last three years by a team made up of Conservator Ana Paula Machado, Conservator-Restorer Maria Aguiar, and Art Historians Raquel Henriques da Silva and Elena Komissarova, based at the Soares dos Reis National Museum and the Art History Institute of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences/New University of Lisbon.

The work was also supported by the Centre for Research in Science and Technology of the Arts of the Portuguese Catholic University, Porto City Council, Matosinhos City Council, the University of Porto, HERCULES Laboratory - University of Évora, the National Civil Engineering Laboratory, the José de Figueiredo Laboratory, and numerous private collectors, especially the painter's family, and the project's patron, the Millennium bcp Foundation.