Maria Elena Vieira da Silva (1908-1992) is widely considered the greatest Portuguese artist of the 20th century, though she spent most of her life in France and became a French citizen in 1956. Influenced by the work of Paul Cezanne and the Cubists, she developed a unique, semiabstract style featuring architectural forms and limited use of color. "When I paint a landscape or a seascape, I'm not very sure it's a landscape or a seascape. It's a thought form rather than a realistic form."