Estimate

15.000 - 20.000

Session

18 November 2025

Hammer Price

Description

Oil on canvas
Signed and dated 73
(craquelé and small losses)

81,5x55,2cm

Category

Modern and Contemporary Art

Additional Information

The work, from the remarkable Alberto Covas Collection, a close friend of the artist, belongs to the final phase of the Colonial War in Mozambique (1964–1974) and was executed during the artist’s trip to Switzerland in 1973. In the catalogue published on the occasion of the retrospective organised in 1989 at the Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes, it can be read: “The oils and drawings from the Swiss phase, created after his stay in Bern, differ significantly from the rest of his work, offering us a different kind of vision.” This different perspective is attributed to the artist’s first contact with a “non-Mozambican, non-African society,” which would “profoundly mark his work, which seems to gain even greater strength in its connection to the people” (Retrospective Catalogue, 1989, p. 177).

These tendencies were already noticeable during the artist’s time in Lisbon, supported by a Gulbenkian Foundation grant (1971–72), and they were indeed further developed when he returned to Europe for a few months between 1973 and 1974, traveling through several countries and visiting studios, museums, and galleries. The work, through its composition —with the monumental red figure enveloping a smaller body in a falling/kneeling position, the dark background, pronounced diagonals, and elongated hands in an ambiguous gesture of restraint/threat—and, in particular, through its title “Ao menos deixem-me defender o meu filho” (At Least Let Me Defend My Son), can be interpreted as referring to the political and social tension experienced at the time.