Amorsolo: Lavandera
Fernando Amorsolo (1892-1972)
Lavandera
signed and dated 1915 (lower right)
oil on canvas
19” x 24” (48 cm x 61 cm)
Opening bid: P 3,000,000
Provenance:
From the Brent International School Colection.
A distinguished pastor, Rev. Vincent Gowen received this beautiful painting as a gift from his wife in 1930. The family had come to Besao, Mountain Province in 1928 where Rev. Gowen would serve as resident priest of St. Benedict’s church and headmaster of St. James School until their interment by the Japanese at Camp Holmes during World War 2. When the beloved family was taken away, the people of Besao took responsibility of this painting and other valuables by burying them under the kitchen of a St James schoolmaster. After the war, the items were recovered and shipped to the Gowens in the United States where they had returned after their release. In 2010, in loving appreciation of the time they spent there, the Gowen family returned “The Lady” to the Philippines to the care of Brent School Inc.
Leon Gallery wishes to thank Mrs. Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo for confirming the authenticity of this lot
Lot 125 of the Leon Gallery / Asian Cultural Council auction on 20 February 2016. For more details, please go to www.leon-gallery.com
At first glance, this painting looks like how Eric Torres describes a nude by Fabian de la Rosa in 1974: “A version of Maria Makiling, a sensuous nude brooding by a brook with her back to the viewer, is no ethereal stuff of myth or fantasy, but an earthbound woman declaring the vulnerability of her sex.” Yet the painting is done by Fabian de la Rosa’s most famous student, Fernando Amorsolo in 1915.
Throughout his career, Amorsolo hired models to photograph, paint and sketch. This nude in a bucolic river setting from 1915 is earlier than the nudes that were done in Spain and, after, his return to Manila in 1919. The details, the circular waves of water on the river in particular, reveal unmistakable influences of Don Fabian de la Rosa, who was the uncle and mentor to brothers, Fernando and Pablo Amorsolo. Alfredo R. Roces wrote in 1975: “From a chronological viewpoint, the art of Amorsolo followed the expected patterns of early influences that culminated in a personal style which ultimately became such a trademark… His earliest influence was no doubt Fabian de la Rosa, who served as the direct link to traditional Philippine painting. Unlike Luna and Hidalgo before him, de la Rosa was the transition between the end of the Spanish period and the beginning of the American occupation…Amorsolo apprenticed in Fabian de la Rosa’s studio.”
In 1974, Emmanuel S. Torres wrote about Fabian de la Rosa’s style of realism: “…though ‘soft’, had a stripped down, unvarnished look that captured the vulnerability of life expressed in somber colors, firm yet readily bent forms and vigorous brushstrokes…”
Amorsolo: Lavandera
Fernando Amorsolo (1892-1972)
Lavandera
signed and dated 1915 (lower right)
oil on canvas
19” x 24” (48 cm x 61 cm)
Opening bid: P 3,000,000
Provenance:
From the Brent International School Colection.
A distinguished pastor, Rev. Vincent Gowen received this beautiful painting as a gift from his wife in 1930. The family had come to Besao, Mountain Province in 1928 where Rev. Gowen would serve as resident priest of St. Benedict’s church and headmaster of St. James School until their interment by the Japanese at Camp Holmes during World War 2. When the beloved family was taken away, the people of Besao took responsibility of this painting and other valuables by burying them under the kitchen of a St James schoolmaster. After the war, the items were recovered and shipped to the Gowens in the United States where they had returned after their release. In 2010, in loving appreciation of the time they spent there, the Gowen family returned “The Lady” to the Philippines to the care of Brent School Inc.
Leon Gallery wishes to thank Mrs. Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo for confirming the authenticity of this lot
Lot 125 of the Leon Gallery / Asian Cultural Council auction on 20 February 2016. For more details, please go to www.leon-gallery.com
At first glance, this painting looks like how Eric Torres describes a nude by Fabian de la Rosa in 1974: “A version of Maria Makiling, a sensuous nude brooding by a brook with her back to the viewer, is no ethereal stuff of myth or fantasy, but an earthbound woman declaring the vulnerability of her sex.” Yet the painting is done by Fabian de la Rosa’s most famous student, Fernando Amorsolo in 1915.
Throughout his career, Amorsolo hired models to photograph, paint and sketch. This nude in a bucolic river setting from 1915 is earlier than the nudes that were done in Spain and, after, his return to Manila in 1919. The details, the circular waves of water on the river in particular, reveal unmistakable influences of Don Fabian de la Rosa, who was the uncle and mentor to brothers, Fernando and Pablo Amorsolo. Alfredo R. Roces wrote in 1975: “From a chronological viewpoint, the art of Amorsolo followed the expected patterns of early influences that culminated in a personal style which ultimately became such a trademark… His earliest influence was no doubt Fabian de la Rosa, who served as the direct link to traditional Philippine painting. Unlike Luna and Hidalgo before him, de la Rosa was the transition between the end of the Spanish period and the beginning of the American occupation…Amorsolo apprenticed in Fabian de la Rosa’s studio.”
In 1974, Emmanuel S. Torres wrote about Fabian de la Rosa’s style of realism: “…though ‘soft’, had a stripped down, unvarnished look that captured the vulnerability of life expressed in somber colors, firm yet readily bent forms and vigorous brushstrokes…”