Praia das Maçãs, José Malhoa (1926)
This painting comprises a nucleus of bourgeoisie life where the woman plays a fundamental role in the presentation of a relatively elitist mundanity. The impressive markings of the brush strokes which are curiously in alliance with the outlining of the figures, infrequent in Malhoa's painting, and diluted in plays of light is noteworthy. On a typical street café, the Varanda do Grego, Malhoa creates specific chromatic and luminous situations in plays of light and shadow by enveloping an elegant couple in a queirozian plot. The affective complicity that is established between what we can see and what we have been given to understand constitutes one of the greater enchantments of this work, a rare urban coin of Malhoa's production.
