Painted in 1963.

The 1960s were prolific years for Vieira da Silva, and saw recognition of her contribution to post-war art in Paris. She was awarded the Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1962 and in 1966 she became the first woman to receive the Grand Prix Nationale des Arts in France. The bold color palette and layered surface of Red Houses typifies the confident style of her 1960s output. Her vision of a complex cityscape collapsed onto a single plane evokes the urban landscapes of Egon Schiele, whose work along with Gustav Klimt appear to influence the decorative cubic surfaces of Vieira da Silva’s post-war abstractions (see, for instance, Schiele’s Krumau – Crescent of Houses (The Small City V), 1915, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem).