One short e-mail when a new work arrives, a work comes back on sale or a result comes in. Unsubscribe any time. Create an account to follow with one click everywhere.
Be the first to know about new works by Henrique Franco.
Signed ‘Franco’ (lower right).
Sizes:
Frame: 63 × 55 cm | 24.8 × 21.7 in
Artwork: 46 × 38 cm | 18.1 × 15 in
Seen from behind, a woman with dark hair sits on a white cloth before an oval mirror, both arms raised to her hair; a glimpse of her face returns in the glass, and a candle and bottles on the side table catch the light. The whole scene glows in browns, turquoise and flame-orange, laid on with a loaded brush.
Henrique Franco (1883–1961), born in Funchal, Madeira, was one of the pioneers of Portuguese modernism. A pensioner of the Portuguese state in Paris after the First World War, he absorbed Manet and Cézanne and exhibited with the ‘Cinco Independentes’ in Lisbon in 1923 before becoming professor at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts and one of the country’s leading fresco painters. The nude at her toilette was a subject he treated in oil throughout his mature career.
Signed ‘Franco’ at the lower right.
Fair condition on account of the relining: the canvas has been relined onto a new stretcher; the paint layer itself stable and undamaged, the impasto intact, with no cracking, losses or retouching in normal or ultraviolet light under an even, undiscoloured varnish; a light film of surface dirt; the frame sound. Please contact us to request a detailed Condition Report.
This lot is catalogued under the artist’s name without qualification and is covered by our Five-Year Authenticity Guarantee under Section 4 of the Conditions of Sale. The guarantee concerns authorship; it does not extend to provenance, dating, condition or value, which are described to the best of our knowledge.
Buyers should review the catalogue carefully and raise any questions before bidding; additional information is not ordinarily provided after the auction.
Five years on authorship for works catalogued under the artist’s name without qualification (Section 4 of our Conditions of Sale); headings such as “Attributed to” or “Circle of” are sold as described.
We coordinate professional, insured shipping worldwide, for auction and gallery purchases alike.
Every lot is reviewed and vetted by our specialists before it reaches a sale.
Pay by card for purchases up to €10,000, or by secure bank transfer for larger amounts.
Looking for something similar? Here is where to go next.
The estimate of €400–€600 is our opinion of the range this work should reach; the starting price of €300 is the lowest bid we accept. We have not published comparable results for this lot; ask us before the sale and we will send the results we based the estimate on.
Bidding on this site, the buyer’s premium is 25%, Spanish IVA included, and there is no VAT on the hammer price and no card fee: at the starting price of €300 the total is €375; at the low estimate of €400 the total is €500; at the high estimate of €600 the total is €750.
Through LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, Drouot or Bidspirit the premium is 30%, so the same hammer of €600 costs €780 there. Shipping and insurance are quoted separately; the estimator on this page gives the figure for your country. Buyers outside the EU pay no Spanish tax on the lot; the destination’s import rules apply (United States: original paintings and drawings enter duty-free; United Kingdom: 5% import VAT on art). Card payments are accepted up to €10,000; larger amounts by bank transfer.
Yes. This lot is catalogued under the artist’s name without qualification, so it carries our Five-Year Authenticity Guarantee under Section 4 of the Conditions of Sale: if the authorship proves materially incorrect, you may return the work within five years for a refund of the purchase price. The guarantee concerns authorship; provenance, dating, condition and value are described to the best of our knowledge and are not guaranteed.
A condition report with ultraviolet photographs is prepared on request, normally within two working days; the condition summary on this page is examined in-house and is not a conservator’s report. Further photographs of any detail, the reverse or the frame are sent on request. The work can be examined in our Barcelona showroom by appointment before the sale, and you are welcome to send your own conservator or specialist.
Henrique Franco de Sousa was born in Funchal, Madeira, in 1883, the elder brother of the sculptor Francisco Franco. He studied at the António Augusto de Aguiar Industrial School in Funchal and at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts, and went to Paris as a state pensioner, where the example of Manet and Cézanne turned him away from naturalism towards flat colour and simplified volume.
In 1923 he took part in the exhibition of the ‘Cinco Independentes’ in Lisbon — with his brother Francisco, Dordio Gomes, Diogo de Macedo and Alfredo Miguéis — one of the founding moments of Portuguese modernism.
Franco became professor at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts and one of the country’s leading mural painters: the frescoes of the Casa da Moeda (1936) and of the church of Nossa Senhora de Fátima in Lisbon (1938), a landmark of Portuguese modern art, are his. His easel paintings — portraits, nudes, still lifes and Madeiran landscapes — combine a decorative simplicity with a rich, warm palette.
He won numerous prizes and is represented in the Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado and in the Henrique and Francisco Franco Museum in Funchal, devoted to the two brothers. He died in Coimbra in 1961.
Henrique Franco (1883–1961), the Madeiran painter of the Cinco Independentes, professor at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts and one of Portugal’s great fresco painters; his Nude before the Mirror is at auction with Aurora & Athena.
Highlights of the Aurora & Athena autumn sale on 17 October 2026: Bridget Tichenor, Nicholas Roerich, Konstantin Korovin, Gerard Sekoto, Jan Zrzavý, Pan Yuliang, a Miró lithograph and the painters of the École de Paris.
“The description and photos of the artwork were accurate, and I felt confident in my purchase from the beginning. The team was quick to answer my questions and kept me well informed throughout the process.”
“I had a really good experience after the sale — it was smooth, asked a question and got an answer right away. Their customer service is excellent and very fast. Definitely recommend them.”
