The City of Lisbon elects its first Council [The Suffrage]

On 24 June 1912, Lisbon City Council signed a contract with painter José Veloso Salgado for the production of a painting representing the city of Lisbon electing its first Republican council.

 This historical painting, Veloso Salgado’s preferred genre, then entitledThe City of Lisbon elects its first Council, shows us an allegorical composition alluding to the elections for the representatives of Lisbon City Council on 1 November 1908, which gave the Republican Party it first victory.

 From the City Council Hall, we can see Município Square swamped under a crowd waving flags and banners of the various Republican associations. Rising above the crowd and dominating the entire composition is a female figure holding in her left hand an unfurled parchment scroll, with the inscription Á urna pela lista republicana 1908 (To the polls for the Republican list 1908). It is this moving figure that leads the crowd and the call to vote.