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U.Porto Memory

University of Porto Famous Alumni

António Fernandes de Sá

António Fernandes de Sá 1874-1959 Sculptor and teacher

António Fernandes de Sá was born in Avintes, Vila Nova de Gaia, on 7 November 1874.

During his childhood, he used to accompany his father to the marble and plaster moulding workshop, located at the former Lavadouros Street, in Porto, which later became Aliados Avenue.

In 1888, he enrolled in the Porto School of Fine Arts where he attended the Architecture, Painting, Sculpture and Historical Drawing courses. One of his teachers was master Marques de Oliveira, who taught him Drawing.

In 1895, together with Tomás Alberto de Moura, Eduardo da Costa Alves Júnior and Abel de Vasconcelos Cardoso, he competed for the State bursary abroad, in the Sculpture category. He came first in the competition and moved to Paris in 1896.

In the French capital, he was much influenced by the works of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), and attended the Académie Julien, where he was taught by Denys Puech (1854-1942); he also attended Sculpture classes taught by Alexandre Falguière (1831-1900), at the École des Beaux-Arts; the Drawing classes by Louis-Auguste Girardot (1856-1933), at the Académie Colarossi. He was admitted to the Salon (1898) and participated in the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris, but did not mingle with other Portuguese artists living in Paris, not even with school-fellow António Carneiro. His only partner was painter Eugénio Moreira, with whom he spent a few days in Belgium and Holland, in the Easter of 1899.

When he finished the bursary period, he returned to Portugal in 1901. He married Lúcia de Araújo Lima, from his home town, a very learned woman gifted for teaching, and they had three children: Manuel, António and Álvaro. In Porto, he set up a workshop in Álvares Cabral Street.

In 1902, he sent some of his works to the Fine Arts Exhibition in Lisbon, and once again received awards for these works. The following year, he was elected Merit Academic of the Porto Academy of Fine Arts.

Some years later, in 1917, he moved his workshop to Constituição Street, closer to Araújo Lima College, which belonged to this wife’s family. He was in charge of the artistic training of students in this college, and after the death of his wife he assumed control of this learning institution.

He became more isolated from the world after the death of his wife and of Álvaro, his youngest son.

Reference must be made to some of his finest works: O Atirador do Arco, a sculpture which received the 1^st prize in the competition for the bursary in 1896; O Rapto de Ganimedes, a group of sculptures inspired on La Sirene, by Puech, which received an honourable mention at the Salon in 1898, a bronze medal at the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris and an award at the National Society for Fine Arts, in 1902; Beija-flor, dated 1898, which is the property of Alpiarça Museum; Busto de António Cano, a torso dated 1900; Desafio, a torso dated 1900, shown at the Salon and later in Monaco; O Beijo Materno (1901), , end of course work in Paris, on show today at the Teixeira Lopes House-Museum; A Cabeça de Velha, with obvious influences from Rodin (the bronze version of this piece was purchased by the French government and the marble version is kept in the Soares dos Reis National Museum, in Porto; A Vaga, plaster work exhibited in the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris, influenced by Falguière, nowadays owned by Soares dos Reis National Museum, in Porto; Camões após o Naufrágio (1903), in Carrara marble, commissioned by the Artillery Museum in Lisbon, but which was later kept in the Machado de Castro National Museum, in Coimbra; a statue of Fernandes Tomás (1907) in bronze, measuring 3 m high, inaugurated in Figueira da Foz in 1911; a sculpture for the Visconde de Valmor Mausoleum (1905); Busto do Marquês de Pombal (1906), a torso on a pedestal designed by architect Korrodi, for Pombal; Virgem de Lurdes (oratory in the Visconde de S. João da Pesqueira Palace); Busto de Clemente Menéres a torso for the Agramonte Cemetery, in Porto; a project developed together with his son, who was an architect and engineer, Manuel Lima Fernandes de Sá, for the competition for the Monument to Prince Henry, in Sagres, de 1934, which ranked among the top 5 competitors.

António Fernandes de Sá was a fine lecturer, yet he always resented the fact that he had never taught at the Porto School of Fine Arts, which was one of his greatest wishes. He was one of the key representatives of the end of century eclecticism, although he was not able to fulfil his favourable career start.

He died at home, in Largo de Magarão, Vila Nova de Gaia, on 26 November 1959.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2009)