---
title: "Cockfight (1969), Chico da Silva, painting"
description: "Cockfight (1969), Chico da Silva. Gouache on paper mounted on hardboard, 53 x 67 cm. Painting in the João Cunha Collection."
canonical: https://chicodasilva.org/en/paintings/cockfight-1969-031/
lang: en
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
translations:
  en: https://chicodasilva.org/en/paintings/cockfight-1969-031/
  es: https://chicodasilva.org/es/pinturas/rina-de-gallos-1969-031/
  fr: https://chicodasilva.org/fr/peintures/combat-de-coqs-1969-031/
  pt: https://chicodasilva.org/pt/pinturas/rinha-de-galos-1969-031/
  ar: https://chicodasilva.org/ar/%D9%84%D9%88%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%AA/%D8%B5%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%83-1969-031/
  zh-Hans: https://chicodasilva.cn/%E4%BD%9C%E5%93%81/%E6%96%97%E9%B8%A1-1969-031/
---

# Cockfight

![Two elaborately plumed roosters confronting each other against a golden background. Cockfight, Chico da Silva, 1969, gouache on paper.](https://img.chicodasilva.org/jcc-031/chico-da-silva-cockfight-1969-gouache-on-paper-hardboard-53x67cm-joao-cunha-collection-jcc-031-chicodasilva.org-640.jpg)

[Download image](https://img.chicodasilva.org/jcc-031/chico-da-silva-cockfight-1969-gouache-on-paper-hardboard-53x67cm-joao-cunha-collection-jcc-031-chicodasilva.org-3200.jpg)

Description for blind and low-vision visitors

A horizontal painting showing two ornate fighting roosters facing one another, their raised, splayed claws almost meeting at the center. The birds have crested heads with round eyes and curved beaks, and their bodies and sweeping tails are built from finely detailed patterns of red, blue, green, ochre, and white dots and feathery lines. The background is a flat warm golden-yellow, with a mound below shaded in pink, blue, and grey suggesting the ground, and streaks of red and blue in the upper left. The artist's signature and year are painted at the lower right. The style is naïve and densely ornamental.

- **Artist:** [Chico da Silva](https://chicodasilva.org/en/biography/)
- **Year:** 1969
- **Technique:** Gouache on paper mounted on hardboard
- **Support:** Paper mounted on hardboard
- **Dimensions:** 53 x 67 cm
- **Motif:** [Roosters](https://chicodasilva.org/en/motifs/roosters/)
- **Collection:** [João Cunha Collection](https://chicodasilva.org/en/about/)
- **Signature:** FOZILVA, lower right (reversed D and S)
- **Photo:** Eric Keki
- **Inventory no.:** [JCC-031](https://chicodasilva.org/id/jcc-031)
- **Article:** [The Murals of Praia Formosa](https://chicodasilva.org/en/articles/murals-of-praia-formosa/)

## The signature

![Detail of the painted signature: «FOZILVA»](https://img.chicodasilva.org/signatures/chico-da-silva-signature-1969-jcc-031-chicodasilva.org-640.jpg)

*The canvas is signed “FOZILVA”, in the lower right corner. The D and the S are reversed, so it reads as the artist's usual signature, “F. D. Silva”. Beside it sits the painter's thumbprint.*

## Provenance

1.  The artist, Fortaleza, 1969
2.  Private collection
3.  Tableau Arte & Leilões, auction, 2025
4.  João Cunha Collection

## How to credit

[Photographs free to reuse, with credit (CC BY 4.0)](https://chicodasilva.org/en/about/#license)

Chico da Silva, “Cockfight” (1969). Photo: Eric Keki, João Cunha Collection, CC BY 4.0. https://chicodasilva.org/id/jcc-031

The license covers the photograph, not the painting.

## Also on Wikimedia

-   [Wikidata item](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q140751155)
-   [File on Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chico_da_Silva_-_1969_-_Cockfight_-_Gouache_on_paper_-_53x67_cm_-_Jo%C3%A3o_Cunha_Collection.jpg)

## For IIIF viewers

-   [IIIF manifest](https://chicodasilva.org/iiif/jcc-031/manifest.json)