Silva (Vicente Gomes da)

He was born in Funchal on 12 March 1827 and was one of the greatest artists Madeira has produced. Guided only by his talent and by some private study, he became a highly distinguished photographer, as well as a draughtsman, sculptor, engraver and founder worthy of the highest esteem. It was he who introduced photography and stereotyping to Madeira, and he was the first to make rubber stamps and to cast iron on this island, producing true marvels in all these fields. He worked with the daguerreotype and with wet collodion, leaving work more accomplished than that produced in the capital at the same time. The foundry he set up beside his house in the old Rua dos Pintos was a genuine success for Madeira, and the pieces that came out of it satisfied the most demanding customers through the artistry with which they were made. Vicente Gomes da Silva died in Funchal on 14 December 1906.

The now defunct Diário da Madeira (‘Madeira Daily’), in its issue of 13 December 1931, published an excellent article containing some biographical sketches of this distinguished artist, which deserve to be read and ought to be recorded here. We shall reproduce it in part in our columns:

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Vicente Gomes da Silva was a striking figure of great prominence in our narrow artistic circles.

From an early age he showed enthusiasm for learning; and while still a schoolboy, on account of his fine handwriting, he was chosen by Luís Correia Aciaioli as an assistant at his well-regarded school at Socorro (‘succour’), where the Madeiran liberal class was educated, producing leading figures in the various branches of human knowledge.

He learnt French and English, which he handled with elegance and correctness, drawing from books, all of them foreign, the wealth of knowledge that so enlightened him.

With an instinctive skill, he captured on canvas admirable oil portraits of the most prominent figures of our society, painted watercolours of the landscapes of our land in vivid light, and painted marvellous miniature portraits on ivory plaques. Before long, foreigners were snapping up his works, on which he set little value, for, like most true artists, he did not appreciate the real worth of his fine work.

He went on to model with a simple burin, carving precisely in wood the characteristic types of the period, regional figures, with a realism and accuracy that caused astonishment.

When the partnership of Niépce and Daguerre presented its astonishing work in France, Vicente Gomes da Silva at once sent to Paris for books on the new science. Through great tenacity and study he succeeded in taking photographs on silvered copper plates – daguerreotypes – and then went on to making positives on glass. The public of Madeira thus had photographs some years before they were being made in Portugal.

Keeping step with the progress of the art, portraits in Madeira soon appeared on albumen paper, mounted on card. Vicente Gomes da Silva knew all the intricate chemistry of photography, preparing the collodion, the silver nitrate and the various darkroom reagents himself, without resorting to imported products.

The learned amateur photographer the Count of Torre Bela, frustrated by the demands on time and patience imposed by ‘wet collodion’, joined forces with his friend Vicente Gomes da Silva. After long nights of work they arrived at a more practical process – ‘dry collodion’ – which later came into general use and brought such progress to photography.

At the same time as working in photography, he engraved on copper plate, with rare perfection, coats of arms for wedding announcements, visiting cards, etc., besides other emblems.

Many years later Prince Nicholas of Oldenburg, struck by the fine finish of this artist’s engravings, had a great deal of silverware sent from Russia so that he could work it here.

Invited by the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal) to go abroad to perfect his skills, he declined the honourable invitation, preferring to owe everything to himself.

In 1863 he travelled to France and England, acquainting himself with all the innovations of the day. On his return he opened an elegant and luxurious bazaar in the Largo da Sé (‘cathedral square’), where his most carefully finished photographic and engraving work was displayed alongside the latest novelties.

His photographic studio in the Rua dos Pintos – later incorporated into the Rua da Carreira (‘racecourse street’) – enjoyed great and well-deserved fame. It was surmounted by the imperial arms of Austria and stood under the patronage of the Dowager Empress of Brazil, Empress Amélie, who made him engraver to her household. Here the distinguished artist made rubber stamps for the first time in Portugal, and introduced stereotyping into Madeiran printing. He was never taught these two new graphic processes by any master, but simply gathered from foreign books and journals the instructions which he then tested and corrected’.