Settling back into day-to-day life following the hectic hot months leads to some contradictory feelings. In September summer comes to an end, but not quite. It is the threshold. September is both summer and the run-up to autumn. All in the same month. Some people never even go on holiday and, when September rolls around, they still have that temporary anger in the air that there are so many things to sort out.

And already a sense of melancholy can be felt in the atmosphere. It happens cyclically, every other occasion in September. I was walking down the street the other day and a dry leaf landed right in front of me. It was dancing in a zigzag pattern, but it wanted to crumble, curly and brown, and it told me right then and there that the start of autumn was upon us. Was I ready for that? I certainly was not. But the rhythm of nature has its own motion. This year, the temperatures took a sudden drop on the first day of September. The days are windy, as if they were heralding some kind of change. And, even if nothing does change, we find ourselves with the feeling that everything is the same again. It then becomes clear, as if we were not already heading in that direction a few weeks ago, that the days are getting shorter and the light is turning to golden shades. Autumn is coming, even if we do not want it to!

This is why I enjoyed recalling a painting that echoes this summer hollowness. The soothing silence of a waning summer that glides into the onset of autumn. Manuel Amado’s oil painting Terraço com cadeira II from the series A Casa Sobre o Mar (1992). The terrace represented is large, with a brick pavement and an endless sea in front of it. The sky and the sea in bluish tonalities are barely signalled by a fine horizon line that divides the sky from that immense water. Ocean-like, I would say. There are no blue horizons as broad and fresh as those overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The grey tone against the blue gives away the fact that this is the ocean. No Mediterranean flatness. This is water embodying wind and clouds and dark depths. To observe this ocean is always a privilege. It is strong and powerful and takes everything with it. Even our thoughts.

Terraço com cadeira II is an assertive title (Terrace with chair II, in English). It describes a terrace on which there is a chair. The latter is made of red canvas, with a folding frame and wooden armrests. An old but common model. It folds vertically and not forwards. The fabric is comfortable as it adapts to one’s weight. We can stay on it for several hours. When I think of a spot to spend the end of the summer melancholically sighing, I immediately think of this absolutely perfect backdrop from one of Manuel Amado’s many paintings. With its ‘menacing simplicity’, as Paula Rego described the artist’s work, I often find comforting places in Manuel Amado’s paintings. Time is suspended in them. No human presence, no elements to help set the time. An open chair on a terrace efficiently snatches a moment. Someone has left. We do not know for how long. The chair stays put and directs our eyes to where it is facing. We, the audience, are invited to settle down on that red canvas. The picture is sunny and the silence introspective.

Whoever enjoys a regular view is aware that the true essence of sight is knowing that it is always there, but that it never gives us the same thing back. The view is ours, according to the filters we use to look at it. On some days it gets cloudier, on others it is happier, on others it is tired, every other day. The view itself is permanent, the elements remain in the same place and their colours change depending on the weather. But the circumstances of the days are ours. This is why a ‘simple’ painting of a terrace overlooking the ocean makes so much difference. Terraço com cadeira II invites us to be there, entwined in the ocean’s sounds and tones, as we let ourselves be carried away by the time that there seems to be suspended, but is absolute in what reaches us.

Looking at the ocean is always a privilege. Even more so from a sheltered place. Adding a chair to the occasion is all it takes. This is how we can reconcile ourselves to saying goodbye to summer and welcoming autumn.