O Desterrado (1874) by Soares dos Reis

António Manuel Soares dos Reis commited suicide in 1889. A century later my personal relationship to the artist started.

Soares dos Reis was in Rome when he started O Desterrado, in 1872, a sculpture he concluded two years later in Porto. Inspired by Alexandre Herculano's exile, it's a clearly nostalgic work, bringing to mind glorious times already gone. Although realistic and neoclassic in form, a romantic feeling emanates from the unconcealed dismay and anguish of the figure.

Here is another view. To be seen in the museum that bears his name, in Porto, Portugal.