Help Palace receives portrait of King Louis I for permanent exhibition

A oil painting, dated 1868, of “excellent quality” and property of CGD, can now be seen by visitors in the King’s Last Rooms Room, on the exhibition route of the palace where D. Luís lived since 1862, indicated the director of the palace, José Alberto Ribeiro, contacted by the agency Lusa.

The CGD initiative appears in the year when the public bank marks the 150 years of its foundation, by decision of King Louis I, and coincides with the bicentennial of the birth of painter Miguel Ângelo Lupi, considered one of the most prominent Portuguese painters of the nineteenth century, central figure of national romanticism and precursor of realism in the portrait.

“King D. Luís lived in the Help Palace from 1862 until the end of his life, only he did not die here. He is a very interesting figure because he was a constitutional monarch linked to several relevant initiatives. One of them is precisely the creation of the General Cashier of Deposits as savings and cashier of deposits ", noted José Alberto Ribeiro.

“ This work is fully part of the exhibition discourse of the palace”, said José Alberto Ribeiro, and is “an additional portrait of excellent quality, of the king still quite young, who is now available for the enjoyment of all the Portuguese”.

According to the person responsible, the deposit results from CGD's decision, at a time when it transfers services to new facilities, choosing the Help Palace to welcome this painting.

“The CGD has a very large collection and thought it was right to deposit the painting here and will be given the indication that it is owned by CGD and that it represents the founder of the banking institution,” said the director of the palace, proving “very grateful for the trust placed in the National Help Palace for his guard.”.

The contract was concluded between CGD, Museums and Monuments of Portugal and the PNA: “Although this type of deposit is concluded for five renewable years, the idea is to stay in the long term,” José Alberto Ribeiro added to Lusa.

The director also pointed out that the painting, a portrait of large dimensions, “is in excellent condition, either oil painting or the original frame”, stressing that, although the painting was known to the experts, “it was never in permanent exhibition as it is now”.

King Louis I would die on October 9, 1889, in the Palace of the Citadel of Cascais, where he wanted to finish his days.

On other news of the PNA, José Alberto Ribeiro said that in September the public will be able to visit the Atelier of Painting of the King, which will reopen after works under the Plan of Recovery and Resilience.

Born in Lisbon to an Italian family, Miguel Ângelo Lupi began training at the Academy of Fine Arts, but interrupted his studies due to economic difficulties, working at the National Press in Angola, and later at the Court of Auditors in Lisbon.

There he received the invitation to perform the official portrait of Peter V, a work completed in 1860 and whose success earned him a scholarship from the State to pursue studies at the Academy of St. Luca in Rome.

On his return to Portugal, he became a professor of Historical Painting at the Lisbon Academy of Fine Arts and claimed to be one of the favourite portraitists of the bourgeoisie and the Portuguese royal family. The portrait of Louis I now deposited in Help was executed in 1868, at a stage of full artistic maturity.

In addition to the activity as a painter, Miguel Ângelo Lupi exerted a lasting influence on Portuguese artistic teaching through the reform proposals of the Academy of Fine Arts and stood out for the rigorous observation of the human figure, a characteristic that marked his portraits and contributed, according to criticism, to the affirmation of realism in Portuguese painting.