Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro

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Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro

Born	21 March 1846 Lisbon, Portugal
Died	January 23, 1905 (aged 58) Lisbon, Portugal
Nationality	Portuguese
Notable works	Zé Povinho

Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro (21 March 1846 - 23 January 1905) was a Portuguese artist known for his illustration, caricatures, sculpture and ceramics designs, and is considered the first Portuguese comics creator.

1 Life
2 Zé Povinho and comics
3 Pottery
4 Sources
5 External links

[edit] Life

He was disciple of his father, the painter Manuel Maria Bordalo Pinheiro and brother of painter Columbano. He started publishing illustrations and charicatures in humoristic magazines such as A Berlinda, O Calcanhar de Aquiles demonstrating a frequently sarcastic humour with political or social message.

In 1875 travelled to Brazil to work as illustrator and cartoonist for the publication Mosquito, who was also employing the Italian/Brazilian illustrator Angelo Agostini until then the unrivaled cartooning authority of Brazil.^[1] Pinheiro eventually became editor of other humorous, politically critical magazines. His fame as a charicaturist led the Illustrated London News to become one of his collaborators.

[edit] Zé Povinho and comics

Zé Povinho, Bordalo Pinheiro's famous series

Pinheiro caricature of Eça de Queiroz

In 1875, Bordalo Pinheiro created the cartoon character Zé Povinho, a Portuguese everyman, portrayed as a poor peasant. Zé Povinho became, and still is, the most popular character in Portugal.

Either with Zé Povinho as with other work, Bordalo Pinheiro drawing style was important and influential, making extensive use of onomatopoeias, graphical signs (as those to represent movement), strong images (the manguito) and even created a unique style of mixing punctuation marks, such as brackets, and drawing.

[edit] Pottery

In 1885, he founded a ceramics factory in Caldas da Rainha, where he created many of the pottery designs for which this city is known. The factory is still in business.