Ernesto Canto da Maia

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Canto da Maia, 1940

Canto da Maia (born May 15, 1890 in Ponta Delgada , † April 5, 1981 in Ponta Delgada) was a Portuguese sculptor .

biography

Ernesto do Canto Faria e Maia (legal name) grew up in a wealthy, aristocratic family on the Azores island of São Miguel . After training up to and including middle school, he switched to the School of Fine Arts ( Escola de Belas Artes ) in Lisbon , the capital of Portugal , in 1907 . There he completed his studies in 1912 and still took courses in architecture. Years of study followed in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and in Geneva at the École des Beaux-Arts . At these locations he was influenced by the work of Émile Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1919), Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) and James Vibert (1872-1942), the latter both representatives of symbolism .

Canto da Maia (stage name) married Louise Mathilde Biderbost in 1919 in Switzerland. His wife later became a model for various sculptures and sculptures .

By then he had already established himself as an independent artist in Boulogne-sur-Seine near Paris. There he continued to work until 1938. In the same year he married a second time. His second wife was Vera Wladimirovna Pouritz, a Russian émigré. The approaching Second World War prompted both of them to move to Lisbon. There Canto da Maia suffered the stroke of fate of the death of his son Julio António from his first marriage, who drowned in the sea at the age of 20 in 1940. After the Second World War, the artist lived alternately in Lisbon and Paris. He took part in exhibitions in both areas.

In 1954 he returned to his native Ponta Delgada, but still regularly visited the Parisian art scene.

Works (selection)

Gil Eanes as a sculpture, 1948
Vaz Botelho, 1954

Canto da Maia mainly created sculptures from plaster of paris or clay ( terracotta ), some of which were used as designs for larger stone sculptures. Themes from his family history can be identified. His works are kept in the Art Deco style, later the classical aesthetic for statues of national heroes moved into his work.

  • ca.1929 - Adão e Eva (also called Hino do Amor, Printemps, or Duo d'amour)
  • approx. 1931 - África (colonial exhibition in Paris)
  • 1937 - Fernão de Magalhães (Exposição das Artes e Técnicas da Vida Moderna, Paris)
  • 1939 - A família em Portugal: avós, filhos e netos (New York World's Fair, 1939–40)
  • 1940 - Grupo escultórico D. Manuel, Vasco da Gama e Alvares Cabral (Exposição do Mundo Português).
  • 1940–42 - Filho morto (dead son, in memory of his own deceased son)
  • 1948 - Gil Eanes (Lagos)

Honors

Canto da Maia received awards such as honorable mentions and medals during his student years from 1914. Later French and Portuguese honors include:

  • 1937 Grand Prize for Sculpture, International Exhibition of Art and Technology of Modern Life, Paris
  • 1941 appointed officer of the military order of Santiago de España
  • 1966 Elected honorary member of the National Academy of Arts, Lisbon

In 1976 a complete retrospective exhibition was dedicated to him in the Museu Carlos Machado in Ponta Delgada, which from 1979 onwards became a permanent exhibition of his works in a museum room reserved for this purpose.

Two streets are named after him in Lisbon and in Ponta Delgada ( Rua Ernesto Canto da Maia ). An important school in Ponta Delgada also bears his name ( Escola Básica Integrada Canto da Maia ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paulo Henriques: Canto da Maia. Escultor . Instituto Português do Património Cultural; Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa, 1990.
  2. ^ Biography of Canto da Maia. ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ebicm.edu.azores.gov.pt
  3. ↑ Onésimo Teotónio Almeida: Canto da Maya, Introduction to the Catalog of the Art Exhibit of the Works of Canto da Maya , Center Culturel Portugais / Foundation C. Gulbenkian, Paris, 1995.
  4. ^ Exhibition 2016 in Ponta Delgada.
  5. ^ Street naming in Lisbon.
  6. ↑ Paulo Henriques: Canto da Maia - Centenário do seu nascimento (1890/1990) , Escola Preparatória Canto da Maia e Museu Carlos Machado, Ponta Delgada, 1990.
personal data
SURNAME Canto da Maia, Ernesto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES do Canto Faria e Maia, Ernesto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Ponta Delgada
DATE OF DEATH April 5th 1981
Place of death Ponta Delgada