Author: Aleksandra Stokowiec

Famous Portuguese

Defeated by Life: José Maria Eça de Quieróz

By 1863, Eça had become a member of a local Boheme and, influenced by new friendships, discovered the pleasures of exotic food and sophisticated clothing, started wearing a monocle, ceased to believe in God, and declared himself a romantic.

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Maria_Helena_Vieira_da_Silva_-_Self-portrait
Art

The Silent Lady: Maria Helena Vieira da Silva

When rebuked about not talking enough about her work, the modernist painter Vieira da Silva once retorted: “And what does one paint for? Isn’t it to make the canvas speak? The painter’s language is the paintings themselves!”

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Famous Portuguese

The Eccentric Englishwoman: Guilhermina Suggia

In her hometown, Porto, the cellist Guilhermina Augusta Xavier de Medin Suggia was affectionately known as “the eccentric Englishwoman.” This nickname, earned by someone who was, in fact, flesh-and-blood Portuguese, reflects the extent Suggia was ahead of her times — as a cellist and as a woman.

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