Serrão de Faria EN

Born on February 21, 1937, in Azinhaga do Ribatejo, José Francisco Serrão de Faria is known for his artistic work as a painter of the Ribatejo countryside, its people and its traditions. He is considered the great painter of the Lusitano horse and was the first director of the Lusitano breed studbook. He was also a breeder, with more than 30 breeding mares, though his stud farm was destroyed during the revolutionary period of 1974.

As a true country rider and an expert in agile and functional horse riding, he interacted with horses and bulls in their natural environment. His passion for and deep knowledge of these animals allowed him to represent them like no one else throughout his extensive career as a painter, screenprinter and engraver.

His first sale dates back to 1951, when his paternal grandfather commissioned him some drawings as illustrations for the book "Ao Sol da Lezíria". Since then, this grandson of a bull and horse breeder has portrayed the equestrian and bullfighting themes with unusual mastery, being represented in numerous private collections, national and foreign, and in some public buildings.

For several years during the 2000s he was an illustrator for the A Capital newspaper and in particular for its supplement on bullfighting edited by the journalist José António Lázaro, and was also director and a collaborator of the Rédea Curta magazine.

Considered one of the best international equestrian portrait painters, with 18 books published and over 200 exhibitions held, including a collective in Norway in 1987 with the most important painters of that country, Serrão de Faria continues to embrace new projects with the same enthusiasm and commitment.
He has also done several works about Lisbon, Oeiras, and Porto, and more recently dedicates most of his time to a new challenge, painting farms and landscapes of the various Portuguese wine regions, having concluded in 2015 an important work begun in 2012 that will perpetuate his fame: he painted, in watercolours of great beauty and technical precision, the 50 main Portuguese vine varieties, reproduced in a limited edition of 300 copies of each.

Already with a vast experience working in original art multiples through engraving and screen printing, after experimenting a new technique of exceptional quality and chromatic fidelity called "Archival Pigment Print", master Serrão de Faria has lately devoted his talent to the preparation of limited series of originals on equestrian and bullfighting themes - his most recent bet.

In 2015 he produced a set of drawings and watercolours about the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art for a limited series collection of Fine Art Archival Pigment Prints and the production of a line of high quality porcelain. In the same year he worked extensively on the Iberian fauna and game, reproduced in porcelain and limited Fine Art print editions.