Cruzo caught the attention of the Portuguese Ambassador in Berlin when he, after a German newspaper described him as "Portuguese from India", asked the paper to rectify, insisting that he was "pure Indian". With the support of the Ambassador, Cruzo held his first solo exhibition in Lisbon in October 1925. He returned to India following a request by the
Maharaja of Travancore. Cruzo settled in Bombay and became well known as a sculptor and
portrait painter both among
Indian royalty and the expatriate elite. Among the people who sat for his portraits were
Philip Chetwode,
Louis Mountbatton,
Lallubhai Samaldas and
Purshottamdas Thakurdas. His "Cruzo Studio" in
Brabourne Stadium became an important meeting place, including for members of the
Goa liberation movement. Despite Cruzo's entries with the rich and famous, his main work focused on poverty and
social injustice as well as hard-working farmers and fishermen. He also painted colourful
allegories and
nudes. A meeting with
Mahatma Gandhi gave Cruzo fresh inspiration and from then onwards, political themes dominated his work, first the
struggle for independence,
partition and later the
Bangladesh Liberation War and the
Vietnam War. Cruzo died in 1982 but remains one of Goa's most notable artists. After years of oblivion, Cruzo's work is being rediscovered. In 2016,
Ranjit Hoskote curated an exhibition of 16 oil paintings by Cruzo at the
Sunaparanta, Goa Centre for the Arts and a website was set up to gather existing media and information about the artist. ==References==