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Lot Essay
Spanish-trained realist Fernando Cueto Amorsolo is the undisputed master of the romantic landscape genre within the Philippines. A successor to the great classicists, Juan Luna, F?lix Resurrecci?n Hidalgo and his own uncle and mentor Fabian de la Rosa, Amorsolo's style was founded on the conservative techniques of realistic representation but tempered and molded by a rich idealistic sensibility. The brilliant quality of his colors evoked the texture of details in his paintings, and he invariably chose backlit subjects, probing into the deepest shadows and finishing his compositions with chrome yellow light to accent contours where the backlighting fell.
Pastoral scenes such as Marikina Valley (Lot 2189) were characteristic of the much-admired canvases which took form under Amorsolo's brush. Suffused with sunlight and wide expanses of sky and greenery, the halcyon landscapes depicted his countrymen pleasurably engaged in the daily activities of farming, cooking, washing or having a village fiesta.
Apart from painting landscapes, Amorsolo was also a superb portraitist, often accepting commissions by important national leaders and elite patrons. He blended this to a remarkable extent with his landscapes, depicting idealised figures - often of beautiful young maidens - within verdant, rustic settings. He rejected Western notions of languid beauty in favor of the Filipino ideal; a hearty, vigorous, blossoming girl with sparkling eyes and firm limbs, and was fond of basing the faces of his subjects on members of his family. Amorsolo once said: "The women I paint should have a rounded face, not of the oval type often presented to us in newspapers and magazine illustrations. The eyes should be exceptionally lively. The nose should be of blunt form but firm and strongly marked...So the ideal Filipina beauty should not necessarily be white complexioned, nor of the dark brown color of the typical Malayan, but of the clear skin or fresh colored type which we often witness when we meet a blushing girl."
To compose images such as Girls Bathing by the River (Lot 2190) and Lavandera (Lot 2191) , Amorsolo frequently employed a female model to pose in his studio, ensuring he would achieve precise physical proportions, and capture the graceful attitudes of a slim, exposed back, partially turned head or upraised arms. Following this, he would fill in the background with a superb mastery of depicting light, shade and moving water.
Elias and Ibarra on Pasig River (Lot 2192) is an extremely rare work by Amorsolo, being an illustration of a significant chapter within Philippine reformer Jos? Rizal's political treatise, Noli Me Tangere . Amorsolo was born just before the Rizal-inspired Philippine Revolution of 1896 and must been deeply impressed by the aspirations and repercussions of the revolution in his youth. It is one of few examples of Amorsolo's work derived from a specific source, rather than a generalised allegory of the Philippines, and can be seen as his expression of nationalistic support for social liberation.
Amorsolo elevated Philippine painting to a new height which remained unsurpassed until the rise of modernism some forty years later. He expressed an epoch in Philippine history, characterising how his countrymen perceived their land through his idyllic, rose-tinted lens, born from a strongly patriotic sentiment which only desired to express the best and most beautiful aspects of his homeland.
Pastoral scenes such as Marikina Valley (Lot 2189) were characteristic of the much-admired canvases which took form under Amorsolo's brush. Suffused with sunlight and wide expanses of sky and greenery, the halcyon landscapes depicted his countrymen pleasurably engaged in the daily activities of farming, cooking, washing or having a village fiesta.
Apart from painting landscapes, Amorsolo was also a superb portraitist, often accepting commissions by important national leaders and elite patrons. He blended this to a remarkable extent with his landscapes, depicting idealised figures - often of beautiful young maidens - within verdant, rustic settings. He rejected Western notions of languid beauty in favor of the Filipino ideal; a hearty, vigorous, blossoming girl with sparkling eyes and firm limbs, and was fond of basing the faces of his subjects on members of his family. Amorsolo once said: "The women I paint should have a rounded face, not of the oval type often presented to us in newspapers and magazine illustrations. The eyes should be exceptionally lively. The nose should be of blunt form but firm and strongly marked...So the ideal Filipina beauty should not necessarily be white complexioned, nor of the dark brown color of the typical Malayan, but of the clear skin or fresh colored type which we often witness when we meet a blushing girl."
To compose images such as Girls Bathing by the River (Lot 2190) and Lavandera (Lot 2191) , Amorsolo frequently employed a female model to pose in his studio, ensuring he would achieve precise physical proportions, and capture the graceful attitudes of a slim, exposed back, partially turned head or upraised arms. Following this, he would fill in the background with a superb mastery of depicting light, shade and moving water.
Elias and Ibarra on Pasig River (Lot 2192) is an extremely rare work by Amorsolo, being an illustration of a significant chapter within Philippine reformer Jos? Rizal's political treatise, Noli Me Tangere . Amorsolo was born just before the Rizal-inspired Philippine Revolution of 1896 and must been deeply impressed by the aspirations and repercussions of the revolution in his youth. It is one of few examples of Amorsolo's work derived from a specific source, rather than a generalised allegory of the Philippines, and can be seen as his expression of nationalistic support for social liberation.
Amorsolo elevated Philippine painting to a new height which remained unsurpassed until the rise of modernism some forty years later. He expressed an epoch in Philippine history, characterising how his countrymen perceived their land through his idyllic, rose-tinted lens, born from a strongly patriotic sentiment which only desired to express the best and most beautiful aspects of his homeland.