Mily Possoz, sometimes written as Milly (18881968), was a Portuguese artist of Belgian origin. She was one of the most prominent figures of the first generation of Portuguese
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
artists.
Early life
Émilia Possoz was born on 4 December 1888, in the Portuguese capital of
Lisbon, She was the daughter of Henri Émile Possoz (18561912), a former Belgian army artillery officer and chemical engineer, and Jeanne Anne Rosalie Leroy (18621937), both Belgian citizens, who were born in
Antwerp and
Liège, respectively and had married in London in early 1888. At this time Portugal was seeking to open eight technical schools to teach industrial education to train qualified technicians for factories in the same vicinity. Her parents moved to Portugal in 1888 when her father was asked to be a professor of Chemistry at the Industrial School situated in
Caldas da Rainha
Caldas da Rainha () is a medium-sized Portuguese city in the Oeste region, in the historical province of Estremadura, and in the district of Leiria. The city serves as the seat of the larger municipality of the same name and of the Comunidad ...
in the
Leiria District
The District of Leiria ( pt, Distrito de Leiria ) is a district located in Centro region of Portugal, divided between the traditional provinces of Beira Litoral and Estremadura. It borders on the north with district of Coimbra, on the east with ...
of Portugal, which was close to a ceramics factory managed by the artist
Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro
Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro (21 March 1846 – 23 January 1905; spelled Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro in older Portuguese orthography) was a Portuguese artist known for his illustration, caricatures, sculpture, and ceramics designs. Bordalo Pinheiro ...
. They arrived in Lisbon on 2 December, just two days before Émilia's birth. She was not
baptised
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...
until 8 June 1889, in the Parish Church of Caldas da Rainha.
After a few years the family moved to Lisbon, with her father taking a job as attorney and head of the maritime section in the firm Burnay & Cª, belonging to Henrique Burnay, the Second Count of Burnay, who had become very rich and eventually turned his company into the Burnay Bank. Mily and her sister Jeanne entered the
Lisbon German School. After some years of difficulty the school reopened its doors in 1895, when it is likely the two sisters joined. Both had an oral command of the German language as their mother spoke German to them at home. Her father was later to be appointed Chancellor of the Consulate General of Belgium in Lisbon. Well-integrated with the small Belgian community in Lisbon and with the wider Lisbon society, the family got to know artists and other well-known figures, such as the painter
Alfredo Roque Gameiro, and the pianists
José Vianna da Motta
José Vianna da Motta (modern spelling as 'Viana da Mota') (22 April 18681 June 1948) was a Portuguese pianist, teacher, and composer. He was one of the last pupils of Franz Liszt. The José Vianna da Motta Music Competition was founded in 1957 ...
and
Alexandre Rey Colaço
Alexandre Jorge Maria Idalécio Raimundo Rey Colaço (Tangier, Morocco, 30 April 1854 - Lisbon, Portugal, 11 September 1928) was a Portuguese pianist of a French father and Spanish- Portuguese mother.
Life
He studied piano at the Madrid Royal ...
. Mily Possoz became particularly friendly with Colaço’s daughter,
Alice, who also became an artist.
[
Like the daughters of all upper-middle-class families, the two sisters learned to play the piano. They were students of Alexandre Rey Colaço, who was also the teacher of the royal family. They became known for the entertainment they provided to visitors to the family house. During the summers the sisters and their mother returned to Belgium while their father continued to work in Lisbon. Their exposure to the arts continued as their paternal grandfather was a graduate of the ]Royal Conservatory of Brussels
The Royal Conservatory of Brussels (french: Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, nl, Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel) is a historic conservatory in Brussels, Belgium. Starting its activities in 1813, it received its official name in 1832. Provid ...
, where he was a professor. One of his brothers was an engraver by profession and her paternal grandmother was an amateur artist.[
]
Early art training
While still young, Mily Possoz started attending the studios of watercolor artist Enrique Casanova (18501913), a Spanish naturalist painter and teacher of the Portuguese royal family, and of painter Emília dos Santos Braga (18671949), a disciple of José Malhoa and a painter who specialised in nudes, much to the horror of the Lisbon middle classes. Braga ran a school of painting, from which Mily Possoz and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (13 June 1908 – 6 March 1992) was a Portuguese abstract painter. She was considered a leading member of the European abstract expressionism movement known as Art Informel. Her works feature complex interiors and ...
(1908-1992) emerged as her two most famous students. It was with Braga that Possoz first experimented with oil painting.[
When his daughter was 16, her father contacted the French painter, Ernest Bordes, who had also done work for the Portuguese Royal Family, asking for advice on his daughter's work. The response was very positive, encouraging her father to allow her to continue her artistic training in Paris, where she attended the '']Académie de la Grande Chaumière
The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France.
History
The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Acad ...
'' in Montparnasse
Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has bee ...
, a school which aimed to teach art free from the restrictions of an academic education. During her stay she became a student of one of the founders of the Academy, Lucien Simon
Lucien Joseph Simon (1861 – 1945) was a French painter and teacher born in Paris.
Early life and education
Simon was born in Paris. After graduating from the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, he studied painting at the studio of Jules Didier, then from ...
, and of Émile-René Ménard
Émile-René Ménard (15 April 1862, in Paris – 13 January 1930, in Paris) was a French painter. From early childhood he was immersed in an artistic environment: Corot, Millet and the Barbizon painters frequented his family home, familiarizi ...
, and met artists such as the Portuguese artists Manuel Jardim
Manuel de Azambuja Leite Pereira Jardim (6 November 1884, Montemor-o-Velho – 7 June 1923, Lisbon) was a Portuguese painter and art teacher.
Biography
He was born to an aristocratically inclined bourgeois family from Coimbra and studied at ...
and Eduardo Viana, who Possoz became engaged to in 1919, as well as Amedeo Modigliani. She began to explore new techniques and to take an interest in new avant-garde artistic movements. Unfortunately, her enjoyment of the bohemian Parisian life proved too much for her tolerant parents and she was recalled home in 1908. Pozzoz later went to Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...
, Germany, where she took private lessons on engraving and lithography with Willy Spatz and also traveled through Belgium, Italy and Holland.
Early exhibits
Returning to Portugal, Possoz divided her time between the Lapa part of Lisbon, almost always in the company of her sister Jeanne and her friend Alice Rey Colaço, and the family home in Estoril
Estoril () is a town in the Municipality of Cascais, Portugal, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a tourist destination, with luxury hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numerous royal families and celebrities, and has h ...
. Her father died in 1912. After the overthrow of the monarchy and rebelling against the conservatism of Portuguese society and its conventional approach to art, she joined the emerging modernist movement in Portugal. She started to exhibit at the ''Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes'' (Society of Fine Arts) in 1909 and rapidly became known, being a regular exhibitor at the Society's annual salons until 1916. She would also exhibit at the Humourist and Modernist Exhibitions from 1913 to 1926, along with José de Almada Negreiros
José Sobral de Almada Negreiros (7 April 1893 – 15 June 1970) was a Portuguese artist. He was born in the colony of Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe, the son of a Portuguese father, António Lobo de Almada Negreiros, and a Santomean mothe ...
and others. She was one of the few female artists of her generation to organize individual exhibitions of her work, in oil painting, pencil drawing, gouache or watercolour. Invited to participate she was the only female exhibiting in the 2nd Exhibition of Humourists, in 1913, and in the Exhibition of the "Five Independents" in 1923. In a male-dominated society, Possoz was regarded as an equal by her fellow artists.[
]
World War I and after
There was a thriving community of artists in Lisbon during and immediately after World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Central to the group were Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
and Sonia Delaunay
Sonia Delaunay (13 November 1885 – 5 December 1979) was a French artist, who spent most of her working life in Paris. She was born in Odessa (then part of Russian Empire), and formally trained in Russian Empire and Germany before moving to Fr ...
, who had lived in Paris but were in Spain when war broke out, decided not to return and moved to Lisbon. Others, apart from Possoz, were Sarah Affonso, Almada Negreiros, Helena Viera da Silva, Abel Manta, Clementina Carneiro de Moura, Fernanda de Castro, Estrela Faria and António Soares. In 1922, many of these took up residence in Paris. Possoz paid frequent visits but appears not to have lived permanently in Paris again until 1927.[
During her visits to France, Possoz became an active member and only female partner of the society ''Jeune Gravure Contemporaine'' (Young Contemporary Engraving), which staged annual shows and was influential in keeping the spirit of printmaking alive. She exhibited at museums and galleries and became friends with the Japanese artist ]Tsuguharu Foujita
was a Japanese–French painter and printmaker born in Tokyo, Japan, who applied Japanese ink techniques to Western style paintings. At the height of his fame in Paris, during the 1920s, he was known for his portraits of nudes using an opalescen ...
, with whom she collaborated on some of his lithographs. In Brussels, she exhibited with ''Gravure Original Belge''. In 1922, Possoz was rejected for exhibition by the Portuguese ''Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes'', due to her criticism of the conservatism and artistic backwardness of the Portuguese artistic society, a rejection that the newspaper ''Diário de Notícias
''Diário de Notícias'' () is a Portuguese daily newspaper published in Lisbon, Portugal. Established since 1864, the paper is considered a newspaper of record for Portugal.
History and profile
''Diário de Notícias'' was first published in ...
'' considered to be "an injustice and a scandal". Outraged, Eduardo Viana, who had never been refused to exhibit, decided to organize an exhibition for modernist artists in 1925, borrowing the name of ''Autumn Salon'' from a similar exhibition in Paris. Possoz exhibited several works. In 1926, Viana ended the engagement and left for Brussels. They resumed the relationship two years later but separated again in 1930.[
Possoz settled in Paris from 1927 to 1937, occasionally visiting Portugal to exhibit or visit family members. The decision to stay in Paris may have been due to an invitation by the French poet, writer and essayist ]Valéry Larbaud
Valery Larbaud (29 August 1881 – 2 February 1957) was a French writer and poet.
Life
He was born in Vichy, the only child of a pharmacist. His father died when he was 8, and he was brought up by his mother and aunt. His father had been owne ...
to illustrate one of his books. It appears that most of her work during this period involved book illustrations and that she also obtained income from the sale of prints. Her financial situation was precarious. In 1937 she participated in the '''' (International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life) in Paris and won a Gold Medal for engraving, and in the same year exhibited at the French Printmaking Exhibition, held in Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, United States, which led to several of her works being purchased by the Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...
.[
]
Book illustrations
With the loss of her father's income, Possoz had to produce an income from her art. This was mainly achieved by commercial work rather than by selling her paintings. An excellent designer, Possoz collaborated with Jorge Barradas and Alice Rey Colaço as a poster and stage designer for the play ''Zilda'' by Alfredo Cortez (1921), and as an illustrator in numerous publications, such as the magazines ''ABC'', ''Athena'', ''Contemporânea
''Contemporânea'' (Portuguese for "Contemporary") was a Portuguese review magazine published in Lisbon from 1922 until 1926.
It was headed by and had saved the graphic heading, it brought a literary direction secured for the main drafter Oliv ...
'', ''Diário de Lisboa'', and ''A Civilização'', using woodcut
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas tha ...
ting, lithography
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
, watercolour, etching
Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...
and drypoint
Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix") with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. In principle, the method is practically identical to engraving. The ...
techniques. She also illustrated short stories and novels, such as ''O Jardim das Mestras'' (1914) by Manoel de Sousa Pinto, ''The Adventures of Felício and Felizarda at the North Pole'' (1922) by Ana de Castro Osório
Ana de Castro Osório (18 June 1872 – 23 March 1935) was a Portuguese feminist, active in the field of children's literature and political Republicanism.
Early life
Osório was born into a well-off family on 18 June 1872, her mother being Mari ...
, ''As Bonecas'' (1923) by Jane Bensaude, ''The roses of the baby Jesus'' (1923) by Maria Benedita Moutinho de Albuquerque Pinho, ''Theatro para Creanças'' (1923) by Maria Paula Azevedo and a re-issue of Prosper Mérimée
Prosper Mérimée (; 28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, and one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, and a ...
’s ''La Carrosse du Saint Sacrement'' (1928).[
]
Return to Portugal
Returning to Portugal after the death of her mother in 1937, Possoz lived in Sintra
Sintra (, ) is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 377,835, in an area of . Sintra is one of the most urbanized and densely populat ...
. In 1940 she was among many modernist artists invited by the architect Cottinelli Telmo to decorate the pavilions of the Portuguese World Exhibition
The Portuguese World Exhibition ( pt, Exposição do Mundo Português) was held in Lisbon in 1940 to mark 800 years since the foundation of the country and 300 years since the restoration of independence from Spain.
The fair ran from 23 June to 2 ...
(''Exposição do Mundo Português''), which was held in Lisbon in 1940 to mark 800 years since the foundation of the country and 300 years since the restoration of independence from Spain. She was asked to design the Japan Room and her work was inspired by Namban art
refers to Japanese art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries influenced by contact with the or 'Southern barbarians', traders and missionaries from Europe and specifically from Portugal. It is a Sino-Japanese word, Chinese '' Nánmá ...
. During that same decade, she became friends with the Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
painter and designer Ramon Rogent i Perés, and dedicated herself mainly to oil and watercolour painting. She also collaborated occasionally with the magazine ''Panorama'' and designed costumes for a ballet. She also participated in several exhibitions of Modern Art. In 1944 she received the Amadeo de Souza Cardoso
Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (14 November 1887 – 25 October 1918) was a Portuguese painter.
Belonging to the first generation of Portuguese modernist painters, Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso stands out among all of them for the exceptional quality of ...
Award, in 1949 the José Tagarro Drawing Prize and in 1951 the Columbano Prize.[
In the 1950s and 1960s, at the invitation of her neighbour and friend Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos, Possoz began to collaborate with the ''Sociedade Cooperativa de Gravadores Portugueses'', of which she remained a member until her death. She began to give private lessons in painting and continued to illustrate books such as ''Bom Dia Tristeza'' (1954) by ]Françoise Sagan
Françoise Sagan (born Françoise Delphine Quoirez; 21 June 1935 – 24 September 2004) was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Sagan was known for works with strong romantic themes involving wealthy and disillusioned bourgeois chara ...
and ''Mascarados and popular masks of Trás-os-Montes'' (1960) by Sebastião Pessanha. She held her third solo exhibition, exhibited in the city council buildings of Sintra and Almada
Almada () is a city and a municipality in Portugal, located on the southern margin of the Tagus River, on the opposite side of the river from Lisbon. The two cities are connected by the 25 de Abril Bridge. The population in 2011 was 174,030, in a ...
and also supported young artists to exhibit for the first time in different spaces.[
]
Death and legacy
Mily Possoz died on 17 June 1968 in Lisbon, at her sister's house. In 1969 the first retrospective exhibition was held in her honour at the exhibition space of the ''Sociedade Cooperativa de Gravadores Portugueses'', in Lisbon. Despite her considerable work employing a variety of different techniques, and her international reputation, she is probably best-known in Portugal for a school book she illustrated in 1958 called ''Livro da segunda classe'', which had a profound impact on students for many years.[
Her work can be found in the ]Calouste Gulbenkian Museum
The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum houses one of the world's most important private art collections. It includes works from Ancient Egypt to the early 20th century, spanning the arts of the Islamic World, China and Japan, as well as the French de ...
in Lisbon, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Chiado
The Chiado () is a neighborhood in the historic center of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. Chiado is an important cultural and commercial district, known for its luxury shopping, historic landmarks, and its numerous theatres and museums. In 1988, ...
, Lisbon, the National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...
of London and the Cleveland Museum, among others.[ In Portugal she has two roads named after her, in the municipalities of Cascais and ]Seixal
Seixal () is a Portuguese city and municipality, located in the district of Setúbal, in the metropolitan area of Lisbon. Its population includes 184,269 inhabitants (2011), in an area of that includes six parishes. It is situated across the T ...
.
References
External links
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum Collection of works by Possoz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Possoz, Mily
1888 births
1968 deaths
Portuguese engravers
Portuguese illustrators
Portuguese people of Belgian descent
Portuguese women painters
Portuguese women illustrators
Women engravers