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U.Porto Memory

University of Porto Famous Alumni

José Joaquim Teixeira Lopes

José Joaquim Teixeira Lopes (Teixeira Lopes, father) 1837-1918 Sculptor and ceramist

José Joaquim Teixeira Lopes was born in S. Mamede de Ribatua, in the council of Alijó, on 24 February 1837. He was the son of a humble landowner.

In his childhood, his education was not adequate to the artistic sensibility he showed. However, over time, his father eventually accepted his vocation and, after some resistance, allowed him to become an apprentice at Manuel da Fonseca Pinto’s workshop, in Porto.
Therefore, at the age of 13, he began his artistic career, guided by "professor Fonseca", an artist who, at the time, directed the sculpture decorations of the boats in the Vila Nova de Gaia shipyards.

After the learning period, he returned to S. Mamede de Ribatua, where he married his cousin Raquel Meireles, in 1857, and had two children: António Teixeira Lopes (1866 – 1942), a sculptor, and José Teixeira Lopes (1872-1919), an architect.
Three years later, he sold the property that his father-in-law had given him, so he could return to Porto and continue his studies. In Porto, he lived in Praça da Alegria and enrolled in the Porto Academy of Fine Arts, where he was taught by João Correia. During this period of his life, he studied during the day and produced small images that his wife used to sell at the fairs in Gaia and Matosinhos.

On 4 February 1862, the jury of "Os Artistas Portuenses" chose his statue of King Pedro V for the Batalha Square, which was approved on the 13th of the month by the City Council of Porto. With this work, in which he collaborated with the mason António Almeida e Costa and represents one of the pioneering examples of street monuments in Porto, he achieved public recognition. He received a commendation from the Portuguese government and a scholarship to further the study of Sculpture in Paris, granted by the Brazilian Charity Society D. Pedro V, in Rio de Janeiro.

During his short stay in France (1864-1865), he was taught by Jouffroy, of the Imperial School of Fine Arts of Paris, produced the sculpture "A União faz a Força" [Union is strength], which was later exhibited at the Ateneu Comercial do Porto, and learned the technique of Marseille roof tiles, which he introduced in Portugal.
He returned to Portugal in 1865. Although he had intended to return to Paris, he never did.

He then dedicated himself entirely to ceramic production. In 1866, he worked for a short period of time alongside Francisco Correia Breda, who knew the industry well, in particular the glass industry, and worked at the Devesas Pottery factory founded around 1865, in Vila Nova de Gaia, by António Almeida da Costa, from S. Domingos de Rana. He then became a partner and soon founded a drawing and modelling school in the factory in 1881, with evening classes, which was later to become the Passos Manuel Industrial School, also in Gaia.

Some of his noteworthy pieces of art include, besides the already mentioned sculptures, the "Baptismo de Cristo" [Baptism of Christ], a low relief in bronze for the baptismal church of the Cathedral of Porto; the shrine "Alminhas da Ponte", a low relief for the arches in Ribeira do Porto representing the Ponte das Barcas disaster, of 29 March 1809; "A Caridade" [Charity], a marble ensemble for the Prado do Repouso Cemetery; "Calvário" [Calvary], a bronze funeral chapel for the Emília Cabral family; "Nossa Senhora do Rosário" [Our Lady of the Rosary], in Cedofeita church; "Nossa Senhora da Graça" [Our Lady of Grace], for S. Mamede de Ribatua, etc.

He died in Vila Nova de Gaia on 16 March 1918.
He was a creative ceramist and an innovative pedagogue, rightly regarded as the first promoter of the "Gaia School" of sculpture.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2008)