Background
Mr. Botelho was born in Lisbon, Portugal, on September 18, 1899. He was an only child to parents who were musicians, and it was music that dominated his childhood. His father died in 1910.
University of Lisbon.
Carlos Botelho, March 1969.
artist caricaturist illustrator
Mr. Botelho was born in Lisbon, Portugal, on September 18, 1899. He was an only child to parents who were musicians, and it was music that dominated his childhood. His father died in 1910.
Carlos Botelho studied at the Pedro Nunes Grammar School, in Lisbon, where he held his first solo exhibition and befriended Bento de Jesus Caraça and Luís Ernâni Dias Amado. Then he enrolled in the Lisbon School of Fine Arts (now Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon), which Mr. Botelho abandoned after a short time, then ending his conventional training. Mr. Botelho was an eminently self-taught artist.
Between 1926 and 1929 Mr. Botelho regularly drew comic strips for the children’s weekly ABCzinho, "and is the author of almost the entire front and back pages of each issue, in color."
In 1928, he started a comic page in the weekly publication Sempre Fixe, a collaboration that he maintained for over 22 years and which was the stage for a caustic criticism of a vast range of issues, going from trivial matters of daily life in Lisbon to some of the most relevant events in international life, in a "style that mixed up chronicle, autobiography, journalism, and satire," making it an early example of autobiographical comics. On 8 December 1950, the date when he ended that monumental cycle of work, his Ecos da Semana (Echoes of the Week) made a total of about 1,200 pages, "in a continuous discourse with no intervals or holidays." In a country strangled by censorship, "national politics is excluded from commentary; [...] such were the rules of the game." However, this did not stop him, for example, from "confronting the build-up to World War II, through remarkable, crushing drawings making fun of Mussolini and Hitler."
In 1929, Carlos Botelho was a well-known humorist. That year he left for Paris, where he attended the Free Academies like the Grande Chaumière; that was the turning point in his career, leading him to definitively opt for painting. Throughout the 1930s, Mr. Botelho had several stays abroad, working on the Portuguese participation in major international exhibitions. He worked on the Portugal pavilion at the International and Colonial Exhibition of Vincennes, Paris, 1930-1931, and on the Portugal stand at the Lyon International Fair, 1935.
In 1930, Mr. Botelho established his studio in the Costa do Castelo, next to St George’s Castle, Lisbon, in the house that his wife, a primary education teacher, had a right to due to her position. The location of the house, where he lived until 1949, no doubt influenced his subject matter, providing him with subjects and references that marked his artistic career.
In 1937, during his stay in Paris, he visited a retrospective of the work of Van Gogh which left him "extremely impressed," strengthening the expressive violence of his painting; and he discovered Ensor on a brief visit to Flanders. In 1949, Carlos Botelho left his house in the Costa do Castelo, and he settled in Buzano. From 1955 on, he returned to Lisbon to live, now far from the historic centre, in the new neighborhood of Areeiro. In 1969, he retired from his position in the Technical Services of the SNI (National Information Secretariat), Palácio Foz, where he had worked since the 1940s.
His painting is formally characterized by a strong connection to expressionism. Within it one can detect three different strands of subject matter: the urban landscape, the social realm, the portrait. His painting subtly changed. The softening of the expressionist intensity opened up paths to a different poetic dimension and to a new awareness of the canvas’ flatness. In the 1950s that option became radicalized. In some of his works he more than ever came close to abstraction.
Old Block of Houses
Echoes of the Week - In Paris
Lisbon (Portugal christmas card to Harold Weston)
Azulejos (ceramic tiles) panel, Av. Infante Santo, Lisbon
Doca do Peixe
Lisbon Bouquet
Lisboa e o Tejo, Domingo
Faina
With Carnivals such as This One...
Lisboa
Lisboa
Vista de Lisboa - Tejo e topo do arco da Rua Augusta
Lisbon - S. Cristovão
Lisbon
Sol Doirado
Páteo Dom Fradique
Barcos no Rio
Nocturnal – New York
My Father
Houses in Lisbon
Vista de Lisboa
View of Lisbon
Calçada da Glória - Lisboa (Elevador da Glória)
Serra da Estrela
Bay View
Untitled
Bailado Português
Lisboa - Praça do Martim Moniz
Costa do Castelo
Lisbonne
Santo Estevão (Lisboa)
Telhados e céu estrelado
Vista de Lisboa - Costa do Castelo com Palácio Vila Flor
From 1937 on, Carlos Botelho was a member of the SPN (Secretariat for National Propaganda) team of decorators charged with producing the Portugal pavilions at the exhibition of Paris, New York and San Francisco: International Exhibition of Arts and Techniques, Paris, 1937; 1939 New York World's Fair; Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1939.
Carlos Botelho married Beatriz Santos Botelho in 1922. They became the parents of two children, José Rafael and Raquel.