JOSÉ MALHOA - 1855-1933 "Os Pretos de São Jorge" oil on canvas signed and dated 1886 Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - 41 x 60 cm Notes: This painting by José Malhoa is of particular interest for several reasons, among which outstands its originality, both with regard to work, about the subject matter. First presented at the sixth exhibition of the "Group of the lion" (Modern Art), in 1886, is displayed in the following year, on the occasion of the 14th exhibition of the decadent Sociedade Promotora de Bellas Artes. In the context of the work of Malhoa, is one of the rare known copies of its first phase, executed with just 30 years old, when he struggled for recognition and affirmation as an artist. Throughout the 19TH century 80s, the painter was still very much subject to the naturalist aesthetic of "lion's Group", led by Silva Porto, and the preeminence of the theme of Landscape. We will have to wait for the next decade, marked by exhibitions of the Artistic Guild, to watch the Artistic mutation that operates in his painting, changing the Landscape for the theme painting. Are therefore more scarce (notwithstanding its presence in several exhibition events), the works of this theme in the early decades. A kind of preparation for the style of success that will feature his career, and an unusual example of interest for customs and popular environments in Lisbon, which will culminate in the famous painting the Fado, already in 1910. But the most relevant aspect of this painting falls on its contents, which gives a peculiar documentary, cultural and ethnographic importance. The theme fits in the famous processions of God's body (Corpus Christi) which, since the middle ages, cheered in the streets of Lisbon, and extending to other cities in the Mainland, the Islands (Horta, Faial), and Brazil. The idea will have emerged in Malhoa in the festivities of June 1885, for which he would done some studies, one of which, featuring a black head, was also exhibited in 1886. The so-called gang of St George, or the blacks of St George, was considered by many authors and participants of the festivities, the decorative aspect of the procession, and what more attracted popular attention, as it is an example inthe known text of Fialho d'Almeida, 1892, then illustrated by a watercolour of Roque Gameiro.