Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro (Lisbon, Portugal 1857 - idem 1929)
Born in 1857 in Lisbon into a family of artists, Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro lived from his earliest years surrounded by brushes and paints, canvases and palettes, which were a natural part of his life, and so he learned the first notions of painting in the same way that one learns to speak or to handle cutlery.
His father was the painter, sculptor and engraver Manuel Maria Bordalo Pinheiro (1815 - 1880) and, in every branch of the family, there were precocious talents who, to a greater or lesser extent, developed on the Portuguese art scene.
Thus, when at fourteen Columbano enrolled at the Academia Real de Belas-Artes [Royal Academy of Fine Arts], he already brought with him a considerable body of knowledge, to the despair of his teachers, who could not set him a direction and often had to let him choose his own path.
This trait, which accompanied the artist throughout his life, on the one hand helped him develop more quickly and gain a personality of his own, but on the other made him collect a good number of enemies. Among his teachers, only Miguel Ângelo Lupi (1827 - 1883) managed to understand him fully, helping him continue his studies, which were completed in four years, in a curriculum that provided for seven years of school. And he left winning his first prize, a silver medal.
But from then on, things did not go so well for him. He competed twice in a row for a travel prize to France and, both times, was passed over in favor of other candidates. Only in 1881 was he able to carry out his plan and, even then, the expenses were paid personally by King D. Fernando (the artist), widower of D. Maria II of Portugal, daughter of D. Pedro I of Brazil.
Although he was already 24, he preferred to travel in the company of his older sister, Maria Augusta, his second mother, of whom, that same year, he would paint a portrait called A Mulher de Luva [The Woman with a Glove].
In Paris, the same disaster: he was not a painter, he was a reporter who investigated and questioned everything, including the authority of the masters. On his own, he visited the studios of prominent artists, went to exhibitions, frequented museums, asked many questions, questioned the answers, and often created a hostile environment against himself, but he returned to Portugal a man aware of his craft, a master of painting, sure of his convictions and his knowledge.
In Lisbon, he joined the artists of the Grupo do Leão [Lion Group], made up of promising artists who would later be among the great names of Portuguese painting and who met at the Cervejaria do Leão.
Despite his irascible temperament, which set him against those who could have helped him, Columbano gradually opened a solid road ahead of him through his unbeatable talent, his will to win and his indisputable technical superiority.
He was even appointed professor of painting at the Escola de Belas-Artes de Lisboa [Lisbon School of Fine Arts] in 1900, but years later he left the post because of incompatibility with the students, who would not submit to his teaching method.
According to Fernando de Pamplona, fame did not eliminate «the character of misanthropy, distrust, selfishness and dryness of Columbano's personality. His genius did not rhyme with human warmth. The master had created a narrow and closed world, of which he was the sole and terrible lord».
Or, as Diogo de Macedo defines him: «misanthropic, closed in on himself, given to exhaustive analyses and cruel dissections, he had only one great love - painting.»
These personality traits did not cancel out but, on the contrary, accentuated his artistic value; however, because of his lack of sociability, he was unable to pass on to others a little of the much he knew. He left a body of work for posterity, but no disciples who could continue his work.
It was thus, in this pursuit of isolation, closed in his own world, that Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro died, in the same city of Lisbon, in 1929.
