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Main Hall, Esposende
“A Surrealist journey filled with symbolism and expression“
Esposende Town Hall
Esposende:
1573 – 2022
Celebrating the 450th anniversary of the granting of the city’s charter by King Sebastian.
| Dates | August – December 2022 |
| Number of Paintings | 21 |
| Commissioner | The Mayor of Esposende, Archt. Benjamim Pereira |
| Curator | Manuel Penteado Neiva, Manuel João Neiva |
Sam Abercromby: an Australian artist who fell in love with Portugal
“In celebrating the 450th anniversary of the Municipality of Esposende, we want to not only praise the deference that our territory deserved for receiving the Royal Charter that granted it independence, but also the importance of King Sebastião in the history of Portugal,” said Benjamim Pereira.
In addition to the military and administrative reorganization he carried out in the country, D. Sebastião left a legacy that has lasted to the present day, thanks to the introduction of ideas that were innovative at the time and resisted, but which turned out to be landmarks in the country’s history.
The painting exhibition “D. Sebastião Revisited” allows us to discover new interpretations of D. Sebastião, this time through the paintings of Sam Abercromby. This Australian living in Portugal painted 190 pictures, with D. Sebastião as his inspiration. The exhibition in Esposende features 21 of them, in which the artist analyzes “the daily life of King Sebastião, representing, for example, the visit he made to his father’s tomb before leaving for war,” says the author. More than four centuries after Sebastian’s death, Sam Abercromby takes us on a surrealist journey full of symbolism and expression. D. Sebastião was one of the most portrayed Portuguese kings throughout our history, for having been so desired before he was born and for the way he disappeared, and here we can enjoy the reading of an Australian artist who fell in love with Portugal and found in D. Sebastião the motto for a series of paintings.
