Adriano Sousa Lopes was a tireless traveler throughout his life. During his numerous trips through Europe and North Africa, he collected copious amounts of images, illustrating aspects of nature and its transformation by human presence, as is the case of St.Tropez. This painting presents a view of the famous holiday resort on the Côte d’Azur, taken from a seaside pier, with small fishing boats, anchored ships with retracted sails, and inter-crossing masts against the sketched scenery of riverfront houses in the background.

 

The appeal of this oil painting on cardboard lies in the quality of its colorful lighting and the clarity of the sky, reflected by the water in pale tones of blue and green, punctuated by white and pink. The lateral light also infers the time of day; a time marking either the beginning or end of human activity (no people are seen in the painting, with the exception of what seems a silhouette, emerging from the somber shadows on the stern of the large boat at the forefront). The light of what’s either sun set or sun rise enters the image from the right in warm, golden tones, illuminating the boats and masts that occupy the totality of the painting.

 

As in Noite no canal [Night at the channel], which also belongs to the CAM collection, one is faced with a work that reflects Sousa Lopes’ appreciation of the depiction of landscapes recorded from direct observation of its forms, details and spatial and temporal particularities.

 

 

AFC

January 2010