António Carneiro repeatedly cited Besnard, Carrière or Meunier, names that survive only in the memory of connoisseurs. They were, however, highly regarded artists in Paris for a painting genre that came to be known as the juste milieu, an original midway found between the traditionalism of Academies and the radicalism of Impressionism – and historiography has been thus overlooking them, given its tendency to discuss arts in view of the opposing poles of tradition and modernity.

Nobody understood better than Carneiro in Portugal the challenges posed by the just milieu synthesis, as is made clear by this street view, one amongst the many he painted in oil and watercolour throughout his career, either in Porto (Portugal) or Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Combining such modernist tropes as a lighter coloration and the looser brushstrokes that blur all edges, Carneiro is always mindful of the demands of composition, draftsmanship and resemblance borne by the academic tradition.

Picking a scene of intended banality, all the more so because he seems to frame it quite randomly, António Carneiro works with full-subjectivity by imposing this fragmented “aspect” of a shady alley, unpeopled and with little else more than a popular altar encrusted on the wall. The literal surface of the picture holds little if any importance to Carneiro, for above all he is driven by the material rendering of his “impressions”, which overshadow the mystery of this unknown empty street, for – as Fernando Pessoa would say – if you did know it, what would you know?

AR

February 2011