JOSÉ FRANCO (1920-2009) signed ceramic figure from Portugal by Sobreiro - Mafra Pottery 29 cm - 1.4 kg - Woman ceramic in blue (1)

JOSÉ FRANCO (1920-2009) signed ceramic figure from Portugal by Sobreiro - Mafra Pottery

Height 29cm
Weight 1.4 kg

Condition: good used condition - a small chip on the bottom edge


José Silos Franco (Sobreiro, Mafra, March 19, 1920 - Lisbon, April 14, 2009) was a Portuguese potter and sculptor.
Born into a humble family of potters, Franco began developing his artistic style at a young age. He was influenced by both popular pottery and high-level clay artists such as Joaquim Machado de Castro. He devoted himself primarily to religious art and created many nativity scenes.
Franco's greatest achievement was his "Aldeia Típica de José Franco" ("Typical Village of José Franco"), an open-air museum in Sobreiro that recreates a model village from the Mafra region as it might have existed in the first decades of the 20th century.
Franco's art was admired in Portugal and abroad, including by the actor Raul Solnado and the Brazilian writer Jorge Amado, who owned a collection of his works. One of Franco's nativity figures was offered to Pope John Paul II, who blessed it.
In Franco's last years, he asked the Rotary Club of Mafra for support in establishing the José Franco Foundation and a school for art and crafts[1].