The National Society of Fine Arts is the oldest and most representative artistic association in Portugal. Founded in 1901, it originated earlier, in the merging of the Artistic Guild, Gremio Artístico, of Silva Porto and its Leão Group (1891), with the Sociedade Promotora Society for the Fostering of Fine Arts. This originated, in turn, at the Academy of Fine Arts, in 1861, and first presided over by the Marquis Sousa Holstein. Its building, designed by Arq. Álvaro Machado, inaugurated in 1913, offers a large French salon, 50m by 15m, unique in the Iberian peninsula, being the realization of the dream of the first plein-air painters returned from Paris and Barbizon, at the end of the 19th century.
In 1920 the SNBA also has many non-artist partners: merchants, musicians, poets, enthusiasts of the arts. The atmosphere is eclectic. Here masters such as Malhoa, Veloso Salgado, Columbano, Carlos Reis, Condeixa, Roque Gameiro, Mário Augusto, turn their art classes available for free, in a tradition maintained without interruptions to this day, in the Artistic Training Courses of the SNBA.
In April 1952, the SNBA was closed by the Estado Novo, the result of Eduardo Malta’s confrontation with the young sculptor José Dias Coelho, who would later be murdered in the street by PIDE in 1961. After the intervention of the old António Conceição Silva, and some founding partners still alive, it is possible to reopen the SNBA.
Here came to life the Association of Portuguese Architects and the Order of Architects, the Association of Designers and the Portuguese Section of AICA, and one can also mention the Cineclubes, the musical sessions of Fernando Lopes Graça, and the theater groups that were received here.
João Paulo Queiroz, 2020
The National Society of Fine Arts was awarded:
Honorary Member of the Order of Infante D. Henrique, on 23/02/1983 by His Excellency, Mr. President of the Republic General Ramalho Eanes.
Honorary Member of the Order of Liberty, on 25/04/2004, by His Excellency, Mr. President of the Republic Jorge Sampaio.
The building of the National Society of Fine Arts has a implantation area of 1,328.14 m2, in the Parish of Coração de Jesus. The building dates from the beginning of the 20th century and is a valuable example of the Portuguese architectural eclecticism, advocated by Álvaro Machado, whose neo-romantic expression, although simplified, refers to the “various revivalisms” that punctuated the architectural panorama of the nineteenth century.
This building, by its unique character, is referenced together with the 140 reference works of the twentieth century Portuguese in the book “Architecture of the Twentieth Century – Portugal”. On the other hand, in addition to the undisputed architectural value, the constructive solutions it presents are not very current. These testify, by the structure in iron and masonry profiles, the advances that the architecture of the engineers advised at the end of the 19th century.
In the functional chapter, this building is again an unusual case in Lisbon, because all the activities for which it was designed remain alive and taking place in its spaces.
Excerpt from:
Descriptive Memory of the Execution Project, Refurbishment works of the National Society of Fine Arts.
Authorship of the text:
Arquiteto Nuno Magalhães
Arquiteto David Dionísio
