Lucy Citti Ferreira was born in São Paulo and spent her childhood and teenage years in Europe. In 1930, she began her art studies by enrolling in a classic model drawing evening course at the École Régionale des Beaux-Arts, in Le Havre, France, and furthered her training at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, in Paris, between 1932 and 1934. In 1935, she returned to São Paulo and became a colleague of and model to Lasar Segall (1889-1957), with whom she collaborated until her return to Paris in 1947. Even though her output was prolific, the circulation of her work was restricted by the critics of the time, who saw her simply as a “follower of Segall” — as if there was no possibility of horizontal collaboration and mutual influence between the two artists. During her stay in Brazil, themes such as maternity, portraits and self-portraits, family, war and social tensions were recurrent in her work. Without money to hire models, Ferreira portrayed friends and herself in several paintings, making use of a mirror. The image we see in Self-Portrait is possibly a mirror perspective, witnessing the beginning of a new painting. In the image, the artist’s expressive gaze attracts the attention of the observer as if conducting the viewer to the inside of her character. The artist’s hands also receive special attention. They are depicted in the foreground, holding her work tools, a fine brush and a paint pallet. Here, the artist is the model and protagonist of her work. A solo exhibition of Ferreira’s work was held by MASP in 1953. The museum has 40 works produced by Ferreira — three paintings and 37 drawings.

Isabella Rjeille, curator, MASP, 2019