Clara de Resende
Clara de Resende, born Claire Wilson de Rezende, was a Portuguese painter who had only a brief career due to illness. The daughter of the painter, sculptor, and professor of fine arts, Francisco José Resende, her name was given to a secondary school in Porto.
Early life
Resende was born in Paris and registered under the name Claire Wilson de Rezende on 24 November 1855. She was the daughter of the Romantic painter, sculptor, and professor of fine arts, Francisco José Resende,, a native of Porto, and of Caroline Wilson, who was English and had met Francisco Resende when he was visiting London. Clara's father came from an upper-middle-class family in Porto. He had already achieved national recognition as an artist, with patrons including high-ranking and influential figures in Portuguese society such as King Ferdinand II. However, his second stay in Paris proved less successful, as he failed to exhibit his works. Shortly after his daughter was born, he and Wilson separated, and a few months later he returned to Porto with Clara. It appears that she remained in contact with her mother, as there is a copy of a message from her father reminding her to write to her mother. Integrated into the circles of Porto's cultural and intellectual elite from a young age, she was recognized by the local press with various periodicals reporting that she would always accompany her father, whether he was exhibiting or visiting galleries, museums and art exhibitions, attending shows, plays, literary salons, or simply carrying out everyday tasks such as buying materials for his paintings.Resende attended a small school in Porto, run by a Madame Rozalia. Demonstrating an early interest in drawing and painting, at the age of twelve she became a pupil of her father, beginning to study and work with various artistic techniques such as chiaroscuro and sfumato, as well as with different materials, such as pastel and oil paint. Her father exhibited a portrait of her at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1867.