Jaime Fernandes

1899 to 1968, Portugal

Jaime Fernandes was born in Barco, Portugal and very little is known about his life. He worked as a farmhand, married in 1921 and at the age of 37 he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and received psychiatric treatment in a clinic.

He did not begin to draw until more than twenty years later. His artistic motifs consist of animals and humans drawn with several delicate lines reminiscent of spider webs. He used ballpoint pens and pencils. Both his medical records and several of his drawings were destroyed by the hospital administration following his death.

His work can be seen in the collection abcd/Bruno Decharme, France, the collection of Gerhard and Karin Dammann, Switzerland, and the collection Eternod & Mermod, Switzerland. As of 2021, Jaime Fernandes has also been represented in the 921 works of the “Donation d'Art Brut de Bruno Decharme” at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Selected works