The publication in 1934 of the poem in book-form Mensagem [Message], by Fernando Pessoa, was accompanied by a kind of marketing campaign by his friends, especially Augusto Gomes Ferreira, Augusto Cunha, Almada Negreiros and António Ferro. They were, for example, responsible for the publication of a whole page dedicated to Pessoa and his poem in the Literary Supplement of the daily Diário de Lisboa (December 14, 1934), including an interview by Artur Portela, some of the short poems of the book and unpublished drawings by Almada Negreiros.*

 

This untitled drawing is one of these illustrations, in this case of the poem ‘O Mostrengo’ (the title refers to a fantastical and frightening being, which in this case stands for the unknown fears of the sea), the fourth poem of the second part of Mensagem. The drawing which illustrated ‘Prece’ [Prayer] also belongs to the CAM’s collection (inv. DP163). Although Almada seems to have planned to illustrate the complete cycle of poems of Mensagem, no other drawings beyond the three published in the Diário de Lisboa are known.

 

 

* See José Blanco, ‘Mensagem – História da edição’, in Fernando Cabral Martins (dir.), Dicionário de Fernando Pessoa e do Modernismo português, Lisboa: Caminho, 2008.

 

 

 

SAF

 

May 2010