“I'm not an impulsive collector. I thought long and hard about the kind of collection I wanted. And there you have it: I focused on the modern and contemporary, with a focus on works on paper.”1
It is with great pleasure that I present to you, included in the live auction 236 of Cabral Moncada Leilões, the core of lots from the João Esteves de Oliveira Collection. Collector, gallery owner, patron, and lover of the arts and literature, João Borges Esteves de Oliveira (1946-2023) was born in Porto, studied Economics, and had a long career in international banking before becoming a gallery owner.
His love for art dates back to his youth. It is said that when he finished his studies at the Porto School of Economics, he received a 17th-century Indo-Portuguese ivory Child Jesus, The Good Shepherd as a gift from his parents. The young João Esteves de Oliveira preferred a work of art to a motorcycle or a trip to the U.S., as was common among boys of his time. 2.
He began purchasing art in the early 1970s, he was just 25 years old when he purchased his first work, a drawing by Jorge Pinheiro, an artist highly regarded by the collector and well represented in this auction.
During his banking time, he lived in London and Paris, visiting galleries, museums and antique shops and developing friendships with several artists, notably Júlio Pomar and Jorge Martins, who later would play a significant role in the gallery.
Following the restructuring of the financial system in Portugal, João left banking, opted for early retirement and had the courage and audacity to open a gallery with the his own name, João Esteves de Oliveira Trabalhos sobre papel Arte Moderna e Contemporânea (João Esteves de Oliveira Works on paper Modern and Contemporary Art). His mission was to promote works on paper, regardless of the techniques used on that medium, which was unprecedented in the Portuguese art scene at the time.For Julião Sarmento, "João was a good man who had a dream, abandoned the world of numbers and business," and decided to dedicate himself "to what truly passionate him." 3.
He opened the gallery in Chiado, across the Grémio Literário (Literary Guild) and on the way to the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon, where I had the pleasure and the privilege of collaborating with him for almost two decades, from October 2002 until the spring of 2019. Since then, I have been a consultant at Cabral Moncada Leilões.
JEO, as he used to sign the prefaces to the gallery's catalogues, is an inescapable figure in the contemporary art world. His work as a gallery owner was crucial to the appreciation of works on paper, giving them the visibility and recognition that had previously been denied before. According to Pedro Cabrita Reis, thanks to JEO, drawings stopped being kept in artists' studio folders and gained autonomy and identity4. In the field of visual arts, JEO is a reference for visual artists, curators, critics, collectors and people from the world of Portuguese arts and culture.
As a collector, he was interested in Portuguese faience, Chinese export porcelain from the 17th and 18th centuries, and Renaissance furniture. However, work on paper was undoubtedly the star of his collection, as drawing was the discipline that most attracted him.
Taste was the main criterion for selecting artists, whether as collector or gallery owner. Most of the artists who exhibited at the gallery were already part of his collection, and many of the works in it came from exhibitions curated by the gallery owner. He himself often stated to his clients, with pride and elegance: "I'm the gallery's best client!" We cannot separate the collector from the gallery owner.
If we look through this set of lots up for auction, we'll highlight some works by modernist artists who had solo exhibitions at the gallery. Among them, a drawing by Bernardo Marques (1898-1962), which was part of the "Bernardo Marques de Museu" exhibition, stands out. According to the gallery owner, these works were not only first choice, but were also selected for major museum exhibitions dedicated to the artist's work5. Also noteworthy is the watercolour by André Derain (1880-1954), acquired by the collector at the exhibition André Derain: André Derain: O Ocaso de um Fauve (André Derain: The Decline of a Fauve), in 2015. The auction also includes works by Almada Negreiros, Diogo Macedo, Júlio Reis Pereira and José Régio.
In the contemporary context, I highlight the works of Pedro Cabrita Reis, an artist much appreciated by the gallery owner, notably the self-portrait “The large self portraits” and the magnificent work “Cântico Negro”. Julião Sarmento's work was featured in at the exhibition “Women, Houses, Plants” and is reproduced in the catalogue raisonné of the series of the same name published by the gallery in partnership with Edições Almedina.
The JEO collection includes relevant authorial sections, especially those of Júlio Pomar and Jorge Martins, both represented in this auction.
Works by artists with significant careers in contemporary art stand out: Ana Jotta, José Loureiro, José Pedro Croft and Jorge Queiroz, without forgetting lots of essential names such as Jorge Pinheiro, Fernando Calhau, António Sena, Álvaro Lapa, Ângelo de Sousa and Joaquim Bravo.
The auction also includes drawings by younger artists who exhibited their work in Chiado, notably Manuel Caldeira, Jorge Nesbitt, Marco Pires and Vasco Futscher.
Special mention should be made of works on paper by important international artists, including: Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), purchased by the collector at Sotheby’s; a portrait by Stephen Conroy (1964), from the Marlborough gallery; a work by Matt Mullican (1951), purchased at the MAI 36 gallery; and the work of Sandra Vásquez de la Horra (1967), a Chilean artist currently living in Germany who held a solo exhibition at the gallery “Todas Íbamos a ser Reinas”, whose work is relevant in the JEO collection.
The works up for auction are testaments to this legacy, each of them bears not only the mark of its creator, but also the attentive, select and discerning gaze of a gallery collector who knew how to recognize the essence of each work.
Isabel Andrade Dias
Lisbon, October 2025