Melancholy and Transgression – Photography in Aurélia de Sousa
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
8-3-2025 10:40 AM
Description
Joana Rocha e Cunha, M.A. Candidate in Art History, NOVA University of Lisbon (FCSH), Portugal
Melancholy and Transgression – Photography in Aurélia de Sousa
Nowadays, Aurélia de Sousa is considered an important figure in Portuguese painting from the end of the 19th century, but her photographic practice is still largely unknown to the public and has received little academic study. This is due not only to the fact that her glass plate negatives have been in the hands of private collectors until recently, but also is due to the hierarchization of the arts, which prioritizes the so-called fine “arts” to the detriment of others, such as photography.
The daughter of Portuguese emigrants, de Sousa was born in the Valparaíso region of Chile in 1866. At the age of three, she came to Portugal with her family, settling in Porto. Art education was part of the well-rounded education of young women from bourgeois families like Aurélia's. Drawing, painting, and playing musical instruments were seen as an added value in the education of these young women. They were not encouraged to pursue an artistic career, but to become interesting and cultured women, so that they could later follow the path that society demanded of them: marriage, motherhood, and domestic chores.
But that wasn't what Aurélia wanted. So, after studying at the Academia Portuense de Belas-Artes, she travelled to Paris. Here, in this city eternalized by Walter Benjamin as the capital of the 19th century, Aurélia encountered a modernity that was reflected in the arts and that was unseen in Portugal. She entered the Académie Julian, but did not finish her studies, and returned to Portugal. We don't know for sure why Aurélia left Paris, but through her correspondence, we can see her disillusionment, because, despite some changes in mentality, she was still seen as inferior to male artists in a society and artistic system marked by gender inequality.
Her photographic practice was varied, including landscapes, domestic scenes characterized by a poetic melancholy, and self-representations where her transgressive nature is evident.
Joana Rocha e Cunha is a master's student in Art History, specializing in Contemporary Art, at FCSH-NOVA University of Lisbon and has a degree in Art History from the same institution. As part of her curricular internship, she was part of the IHA seed-project research team ‘Confessions of Gender - self-portraits of Portuguese women artists and writers in the post-revolution period’. She was a research fellow at the Institute of Art History (NOVA-FCSH), in the project ‘Narratives of the Self between the Public and the Private: books by Women Artists in the Collection of the Art Library of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’ and has collaborated with CEDANSA - Centre for Studies and Documentation Almada Negreiros / Sarah Affonso. She also has a degree in Photography (2010-2015) from Ar.co - Centre for Art and Visual Communication.
Relational Format
Conference proceeding
Recommended Citation
Rocha e Cunha, Joana, "Melancholy and Transgression – Photography in Aurélia de Sousa" (2025). Women of Photography: A 24-Hour Conference-a-thon Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025. 31.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/womenofphotography/2025/schedule/31
Melancholy and Transgression – Photography in Aurélia de Sousa
Joana Rocha e Cunha, M.A. Candidate in Art History, NOVA University of Lisbon (FCSH), Portugal
Melancholy and Transgression – Photography in Aurélia de Sousa
Nowadays, Aurélia de Sousa is considered an important figure in Portuguese painting from the end of the 19th century, but her photographic practice is still largely unknown to the public and has received little academic study. This is due not only to the fact that her glass plate negatives have been in the hands of private collectors until recently, but also is due to the hierarchization of the arts, which prioritizes the so-called fine “arts” to the detriment of others, such as photography.
The daughter of Portuguese emigrants, de Sousa was born in the Valparaíso region of Chile in 1866. At the age of three, she came to Portugal with her family, settling in Porto. Art education was part of the well-rounded education of young women from bourgeois families like Aurélia's. Drawing, painting, and playing musical instruments were seen as an added value in the education of these young women. They were not encouraged to pursue an artistic career, but to become interesting and cultured women, so that they could later follow the path that society demanded of them: marriage, motherhood, and domestic chores.
But that wasn't what Aurélia wanted. So, after studying at the Academia Portuense de Belas-Artes, she travelled to Paris. Here, in this city eternalized by Walter Benjamin as the capital of the 19th century, Aurélia encountered a modernity that was reflected in the arts and that was unseen in Portugal. She entered the Académie Julian, but did not finish her studies, and returned to Portugal. We don't know for sure why Aurélia left Paris, but through her correspondence, we can see her disillusionment, because, despite some changes in mentality, she was still seen as inferior to male artists in a society and artistic system marked by gender inequality.
Her photographic practice was varied, including landscapes, domestic scenes characterized by a poetic melancholy, and self-representations where her transgressive nature is evident.
Joana Rocha e Cunha is a master's student in Art History, specializing in Contemporary Art, at FCSH-NOVA University of Lisbon and has a degree in Art History from the same institution. As part of her curricular internship, she was part of the IHA seed-project research team ‘Confessions of Gender - self-portraits of Portuguese women artists and writers in the post-revolution period’. She was a research fellow at the Institute of Art History (NOVA-FCSH), in the project ‘Narratives of the Self between the Public and the Private: books by Women Artists in the Collection of the Art Library of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’ and has collaborated with CEDANSA - Centre for Studies and Documentation Almada Negreiros / Sarah Affonso. She also has a degree in Photography (2010-2015) from Ar.co - Centre for Art and Visual Communication.
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