The dissertation made in the context of the Drawing Master Degree with the theme: Uma caricatura de país (Caricature of a country), wants to investigate the history of caricature and its protagonists in Portugal, to create a practical work about social and habits caricature and has the purpose to study caricature and humour as an artistic expression. The caricatures introduced in the personal project want to contribute to the portuguese social criticism, portraying the everyday of portuguese people, idealizing typical characters with humour like contemporary Zé Povinhos. With a basis in a bibliographic review and in the critical observation of the originals, we wanted to search informations about the history of caricature in Portugal since the 19th century until now, analyzing lives and works of the main Portuguese caricaturists. We also developed a study about the history and the various definitions of caricature, of phisiognomics and humour, with a basis in the theories of the most relevant authors from Aristoteles to Freud. In the drawing practice, has been used the Nicolaides method, The Natural Way to Draw, with the purpose of exploring new ways to represent caricated characters and situations, focusing this method in a personal graphic expression. During the study and the realization of the theoretical work, the conclusion was thatcaricature passed through various transformations in time, it evolved artistically, it started being spread not just through newspapers, it gained a new space in the artistic scenery, conquering values that were closer to the artistic status. A caricatura ou o desenho humorístico tem a importante tarefa de retratar e criticar os problemas de uma sociedade. A sociedade contemporânea necessita da caricatura, para se rir de si própria, justificando-se, assim, o projecto humorístico final. The caricature or the humorous drawing has the important objective of criticizing and talking about the problems of a society. The contemporary society needs caricature to laugh of itself, justifying the final humoristic project

Tese de mestrado, Desenho, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Belas Artes, 2013