Untitled 

José de Almada Negreiros created this unnamed drawing of a seated nude woman, with pencil on paper. Negreiros was a Portuguese artist who came of age during a period of political turmoil and cultural transformation in Europe. He sought to capture the dynamism of modern life and the changing role of the individual in society. The woman, with her gaze lifted, seems to be a figure of contemplation or perhaps defiance. In the early 20th century, when Negreiros was active, artistic representations of women were often polarized. They were either idealized as passive muses or demonized as dangerous seductresses. Negreiros doesn’t neatly align with either extreme, instead he presents a woman who is present in her body, yet seems to exist in a realm of her own thoughts. This artwork reflects Negreiros’s interest in exploring the complexities of human identity and experience, pushing against traditional representations. It invites us to consider the multiple facets of a person's being.