This booklet was published to accompany the exhibition Strange recent days in less than happy times, curated by Hugo Dinis, winner of the Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar/EGEAC 2016 Curation Prize, and which included Pomar’s work Almoço do Trolha (The Bricklayer’s Lunch) (1946–50). As part of the research and studies carried out by staff at the Atelier-Museu into the work of Júlio Pomar, revisiting the Second General Exhibition of Visual Art, which took place in May 1947 at the Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes, proved particularly important. At that exhibition, the painter, who was in prison at the time, showed the paintings Almoço do Trolha, Farrapeira (The Ragpicker) (1947) and Resistência (Resistance) (1946). The latter was seized by the PIDE (state security police) during the event. It now belongs to the collection of the Lisbon City Museum/CML, and is in storage at the  Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar/EGEAC.