Arte Portuguesa Século XIX–XX — Coleção Miguel Duarte

About This Event

Long-running exhibition of 19th- and 20th-century Portuguese art from the Miguel Duarte collection at Museu Municipal de Faro.

Quick answers

When is it?

This exhibition runs from March 7 to September 20, 2026.

Where is it?

It is being held at the Museu Municipal de Faro, in Faro.

Faro's Museu Municipal sits inside the Convento de Nossa Senhora da Assunção, a sixteenth-century convent that is itself the best argument for visiting. The building is beautiful — azulejo-lined cloisters, vaulted ceilings, stone corridors that stay cool even in July — and it houses a permanent collection of Roman mosaics and archaeological finds that justify the admission price on their own. The Miguel Duarte exhibition, running through September, adds another reason to spend an hour here.

The collection is private, loaned for this temporary show, and it covers nineteenth- and twentieth-century Portuguese painting and works on paper. The strength is depth rather than breadth: you get lesser-known regional painters alongside the names that appear in every survey of Portuguese modernism. There are landscapes, portraits, studies in oil and charcoal, and enough variety that the hour does not drag. If you know Columbano or the Souza-Cardoso circle, you will recognise the influences. If you do not, the exhibition is a useful introduction to a period of Portuguese art that does not travel much beyond Lisbon and Porto.

What makes the show worthwhile is that it is genuinely educational rather than decorative. The curation assumes you are curious but not expert, and the wall text is concise enough to read without losing momentum. You learn something about the trajectory of Portuguese painting between the Academy and modernism, and you see work by artists who are not well represented in public collections. It is the kind of exhibition that a serious private collector can pull together but a public museum often cannot, and Faro is lucky to have it.

The museum is also showing Sátiras da Pós-Verdade, a contemporary exhibition in a separate gallery, and your ticket covers both temporary shows plus the permanent archaeological collection. If you are going to pay the entrance fee, budget ninety minutes to two hours to see everything properly. The convent itself is worth wandering even if you are not especially interested in the art — the cloisters are quiet, the courtyard has orange trees, and the whole building feels like a reprieve from the heat and noise of central Faro.

The museum is a short walk from Faro's old town and the marina, and it is well signposted once you are inside the city walls. If you are driving, parking is limited nearby; your best option is one of the public car parks near the train station and a ten-minute walk. The exhibition runs until September 20, which gives you most of the summer and early autumn to catch it. Faro is not a city that most visitors spend more than a day in, but this is one of the things that makes that day worthwhile.