Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea
Museu do Chiado

1911

The performance of the museum’s first director, the painter Carlos Reis, was low-key. His appointment represented an unexpected triumph for the conservative lobby, to the detriment of the young artists established in Paris. The museum at the time occupied three of its present rooms, and it was entered via the Academia de Belas-Artes. In 1914, the painter Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro became director, continuing and fully developing the traditionalist approach previously adopted, and resisting the shows of displeasure vented by the modernists then centred on the Café Brasileira in Chiado. During his time as director (1914-1929), the museum was expanded to fill several more rooms, one of which was dedicated to sculpture. The painter Adriano de Sousa Lopes, deemed by Columbano the sole artist from amongst the younger generation fit to succeed him, gave continuity to his project and introduced, moderately, some modern elements that he himself was unable to accept. Until 1944, Sousa Lopes would prove to be a bolder director than expected. It was during this period that the modernists finally began to make inroads into the museum’s collections and that important sculptures by Rodin, Bourdelle and Joseph Bernard were acquired. Also during this period, the museum grew, incorporating Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro’s adjacent atelier at the Escola de Belas-Artes, opening thus a new room dedicated to the painter.