Aurélia de Souza

Who was Aurélia de Souza?

Aurélia de Souza was a Portuguese painter.

She was born in Valparaíso, Chile. Her parents were emigrants in Brazil and Chile, but they moved back to Porto, Portugal, in 1869. She studied at the Fine-Arts Academy of Porto, since 1893, where she was a pupil of João Marques de Oliveira, who greatly influenced her style. In 1898, she moved to Paris to study painting, and she traveled for Europe in the next three years, before finally returning to Portugal in 1901. She died in Porto.

She was influenced by the most innovative painting styles that she saw in France, as can be seen in her work. She painted in a personal naturalist style, sometimes with realist, impressionist or post-impressionist influences. Her subjects included portraits, landscapes, and scenes of everyday life. She is most famous for her "Self-Portrait", painted in 1900.