Simão César Dordio Gomes , “Dois Banhistas a Beira do Douro (Two Bathers on the Banks of the Douro)”, 1928, Oil on Canvas, Location Unknown
Born in 1890 at Arraiolos, Portugal, Simão César Dordio Gomes enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lisbon, attending until 1910. He studied under the Portuguese painter Luciano Freire and the Naturalist painter Veloso Salgado, also from Portugal. Gomes’s early works show the influence of the Portuguese Realist painter Columbeno with his use of somber tones of color.
After a year in Paris during which he attended the Julian Academy and was exposed to Portuguese Modernist art, Dordio Gomes decided to return to his hometown of Arraiolos. He stayed there for ten years, painting in the traditional regionalist style that he was previously taught. A second stay in Paris from 1921 to 1926, now an international scene, shifted the style of Gomes’s work towards a more modernist approach. Putting aside the traditional naturalism, he embraced the colors and forms of the works of Cézanne and even made experiments in Cubism.
Dordio Gomes returned once again to Portugal, taking up the regionalist theme for his work. However, this time, his work carried the influence of Cézanne’s exuberant colors and boldness of form. He produce many landscapes of the Alentejo region during the following six years. In 1934 Dordio Gomes became a teacher of painting at the Superior School of Fine Arts in Oporto, Portugal, teaching a new generation of modern artists.
During his stay in Oporto, located in the northern regions of Portugal, Dordio Gomes’s paintings took on the softer palette of the landscape. His preferred theme for his work became the landscapes and the people of the Douro River Valley area. It was during this period that Dordio Gomes took up the art of fresco painting, a desire he had since seeing the frescos of Italy in his early life travels. He continued teaching at the School of Fine Arts in Oporto until his retirement in 1960.