Bordallo Pinheiro

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Arte Bordallo Dora (Special Order)

The sculpture Dora was inspired by a news story from 2019 about a polar bear in the Ukraine found rummaging through rubbish. This cruel portrait of the consequences of the environmental crisis is represented here by the traditional ceramic wolf of Bordallo Pinheiro which, in a similar situation to the news, feeds on unsuitable refuse, such as toothbrushes, medicine containers and chains.

Portugal's most beloved cartoonist of the 19th century, Bordallo Pinheiro was famous for creating the character "Ze Povinho," a rustic laborer who was kind to his friends and contemptuous of those with money and power. His artistic style blends the honesty realism of late 19th-century Arts and Crafts movement with the dramatic, even grotesque, features of Goya's earlier paintings.

In 1884, he and his son founded an eponymous factory in Caldas da Rainha along the Portuguese coast to create whimsical and naturalistic faience pieces based on his art. Because of the special minerals in the local soil and the skills of the craftsmen in the area, Caldas da Rainha is well-known as the capital of Portuguese pottery. Today the factory takes Pinheiro's original style into the 21st century with satirical portraits of modern day celebrities, while continuing its old fashioned, made by hand tradition of Portuguese pottery making.