Em 1824, a “Morte de Camões”, do pintor Domingos António Sequeira, torna-se a primeira obra portuguesa a ser aceita no famoso Salon de Paris, na época o mais importante evento de arte do Ocidente. Neste início do Romantismo, o poeta já era conhecido em Paris, e outras telas de temas camonianos, divulgadas por elites lusófonas da capital francesa, tinham sido abordadas por pintores franceses. Bem recebida por estes, a tela é, contudo, um fracasso de público e termina por ser oferecida pelo pintor ao Imperador D. Pedro I e “desaparece” no Brasil. O artigo a seguir examina as circunstâncias da sua exposição e tenta analisar a sua recepção em França.
In 1824, Domingos António Sequeira’s “Death of Camões” became the first work of art by a Portuguese painter to be accepted at the famous Paris Salon, the most important artistic event in the West at that time. The poet was already known in Paris during the early stages of Romanticism, thanks to Portuguese speaking elites living in there, and other paintings of camonian themes, had been taken up by French painters. Unfortunately, athough well receieved by these colleagues, the painting was not a success among the general public and ended up being offered by the painter to Emperor D. Pedro I and “disappeared” in Brazil. This article aims to examine the circumstances of its exhibition at the Salon and to analyse the paintings’s recepetion in France.
