---
title: "Fish (c. 1966), Chico da Silva, painting"
description: "Fish (c. 1966), Chico da Silva. Gouache on paper, 54 x 74 cm. Painting in the João Cunha Collection."
canonical: https://chicodasilva.org/en/paintings/fish-088/
lang: en
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
translations:
  en: https://chicodasilva.org/en/paintings/fish-088/
  es: https://chicodasilva.org/es/pinturas/peces-088/
  fr: https://chicodasilva.org/fr/peintures/poissons-088/
  pt: https://chicodasilva.org/pt/pinturas/peixes-088/
  ar: https://chicodasilva.org/ar/%D9%84%D9%88%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%AA/%D8%A3%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%83-088/
  zh-Hans: https://chicodasilva.cn/%E4%BD%9C%E5%93%81/%E4%B8%89%E9%B1%BC-088/
---

# Fish

![Fish, Chico da Silva, c. 1966](https://img.chicodasilva.org/jcc-088/chico-da-silva-fish-undated-gouache-on-paper-54x74cm-joao-cunha-collection-jcc-088-chicodasilva.org-640.jpg)

[Download image](https://img.chicodasilva.org/jcc-088/chico-da-silva-fish-undated-gouache-on-paper-54x74cm-joao-cunha-collection-jcc-088-chicodasilva.org-3200.jpg)

Description for blind and low-vision visitors

A horizontal composition with three fish on a ground of short parallel strokes in ochre, cream, grey blue, red and green. The largest fish fills the sheet from left to right, head turned to the left, mouth open on a deep red interior. Its head is grey green and worked in a fine mesh of netted marks; the round eye sits in a yellow ring around a black band and a small red centre. Behind the head the body is built from long curved bands, each filled with rows of fine dashes in olive, white, pink, red and yellow, so the flank reads as a stack of ribbons following the curve of the belly. Along the back a row of tall triangular spines rises like leaves, each one red or green with a yellow shaft and fine ribs. Under the belly, blue panels stippled with yellow carry square patches, and below them the fins spread out: two long leaf-shaped fins striped green and yellow, a pair banded red and yellow, and a lower pair in red and blue drawn with herringbone veins. To the right the tail opens into a wide fan of fine threads in yellow, green, red and white, striped along its whole length. Above and to the right a second, smaller fish swims to the left, its body rose red shading into a blue and yellow stippled rear, with a green striped back fin and a yellow forked tail. At the lower left a third fish, smaller still, has a blue stippled head, a body banded in red, green and yellow, and red and blue fins drawn with the same herringbone strokes. An olive oval floats at the left, and dark grey smudges hang at the upper left. The signature is painted in yellow at the lower left, on the open ground.

- **Artist:** [Chico da Silva](https://chicodasilva.org/en/biography/)
- **Year:** c. 1966
- **Technique:** Gouache on paper
- **Support:** Paper
- **Dimensions:** 54 x 74 cm
- **Motif:** [Fish](https://chicodasilva.org/en/motifs/fish/)
- **Collection:** [João Cunha Collection](https://chicodasilva.org/en/about/)
- **Signature:** FDZILVA, lower left (reversed S)
- **Photo:** João Cunha
- **Inventory no.:** [JCC-088](https://chicodasilva.org/id/jcc-088)

## The signature

![Detail of the painted signature: «FDZILVA»](https://img.chicodasilva.org/signatures/chico-da-silva-signature-undated-jcc-088-chicodasilva.org-640.jpg)

*The canvas is signed “FDZILVA”, in the lower left corner. The S is reversed, so it reads as the artist's usual signature, “F. D. Silva”.*

## How to credit

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

Chico da Silva, “Fish” (c. 1966). Photo: João Cunha, João Cunha Collection, CC BY 4.0. https://chicodasilva.org/id/jcc-088

The license covers the photograph, not the painting.

## For IIIF viewers

-   [IIIF manifest](https://chicodasilva.org/iiif/jcc-088/manifest.json)