A set of x6 stamps of figures from Portuguese history and culture.
Alexandre O’Neill
Poet | 1924-1986
Born in Lisbon, O’Neill started to demonstrate an affinity with words at an early age, despite having no specialist training in that area. Irreverent, satirical and very close to the ideas of surrealism (he founded the Lisbon Surrealist Movement), he split his working life between advertising, which allowed him to make a living, and literature. His literary work, which shows ingeniously ironic traits, is mostly poetic, but also includes anthologies, prose and translations, reaching peak production during the 1960s. He was famous for the nickname he gave himself: “caixadóclos”, or the “four-eyed” poet.
Alice Jorge
Painter | 1924-2008
Initially deeply involved in the Portuguese Neorealism trend, this painter, printmaker, ceramicist and graphic arts teacher spent most of her life in Lisbon, where she was born and worked most frequently.
Although she had classical training at the Escola Superior de Belas Artes in Lisbon, with a brief stint in Porto, by practising her own formal expression of art she soon freed herself from that framework, developing modernist and abstract concepts in her work that materialised not just in painting and printmaking, but also in ceramics, tiles andtapestry. She is represented in various prestigious Portuguese museums.
António Manuel Baptista
Scientist | 1924-2015
Best known for his tireless activity promoting science in print media, radio and television, which won him prizes including Imprensa, in 1969, and Televisão, in 1981, António Manuel Baptista also had a notable parallel career as a researcher, scientist, writer and teacher. He was Professor of Physics at the Military Academy and director of the Isotope Lab at the Instituto Português de Oncologia (Portuguese Oncology Institute - IPO) from 1961 to 1983, as well as working for the Medical Research Council and the Royal Cancer Hospital in London. In Portugal, he was one of the pioneers of nuclear physics in the area of medicine, and produced a considerable body of published work.
António Ramos Rosa
Poet | 1924-2013
A poet and democrat, founder of the MUD (Movement of Democratic Unity) which opposed the dictatorial regime, leading to his imprisonment, Ramos Rosa committed his entire life as a journalist (he founded the magazine Árvore) and writer to defending above all else the aesthetic quality of verse and prose, regardless of any affiliation to trends in literary thought. According to him, all poetry flowed naturally from the manifestation of a “higher need”, related to creation and social intervention.
Egas Moniz
Neuroscientist | 1874-1955
A neurologist, professor, politician and diplomat, Moniz is best known for his work on cerebral angiography and prefrontal leucotomy, his development of the latter speciality winning him the Nobel Prize in 1949.
Less well-known is his political activity, always informed by the defence of freedom and democracy, which caused various problems during the dictatorship. He founded the Partido Republicano Centrista (Centrist Republican Party), which later merged with Sidónio Pais’ “Sidonist” Party. He was a member of parliament between 1903 and 1917, ambassador to Portugal in Spain, and Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1918. Later, in 1928, he represented Portugal at the Peace Conference in Versailles.
Sebastião da Gama
Poet | 1924-1952
Despite his untimely death from tuberculosis, before the age of 28, Sebastião da Gama’s life and work are inseparable from the hills of Serra da Arrábida, which he held dear and regarded as his main source of inspiration.
An ecologist before the term was adopted as a banner for conservation and environment activists, he inspired the establishment of the Liga para a Proteção da Natureza (Nature Protection League), the first association of this kind in Portugal.
His literary oeuvre is vast, comprising books of poetry as well as educational texts and, most notably, his Diary, started in 1949 and continued almost throughout his life, containing reflections on the “lucid lesson of death” and an “awareness of fleeting life” with which he struggled for most of his days.