Fernando Amorsolo: Sabungero

Fernando Amorsolo (1892-1972)

Sabungero

signed and dated 1929 (lower left)

oil on wood

24” x 30” (61 cm x 76 cm)

 

Opening bid: P 6,000,000

 

Leon Gallery wishes to thank Mrs. Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo for confirming the authenticity of this lot

 

Provenance:

Private Collection, USA;

Acquired from the above by the present owner

 

Lot 126 of the Leon Gallery auction on 14 September 2019. Please see www.leon-gallery.com for more details.

 

Amorsolo idealized the peasant, whom he situated in a rural idyll

where nature was ever bountiful and hunger and strife were

unknown.

 

He used natural light in his paintings even as early as the 1920s.

This painting is dated 1929. In typical Amorsolo fashion, the

figure of a man taking care of his rooster is outlined against a

characteristic glow, and the subdued orange sunlight hitting the

earth highlights the nearby details, especially the green grass.

The man may be under the shade of a tree or the shadows of a

nipa hut. Says Alfredo Roces in his book, Amorsolo (1975): “More

accurately, it was the shadow areas he painted with a richness

of color that previous artists had simply obscured with dark

scrumble.”

 

Amorsolo’s optimistic, pastoral images set the tone for Philippine

painting before World War II. Except for his darker World War

II-era paintings, Amorsolo painted quiet and peaceful scenes

throughout his career. He was the first to extensively portray

traditional Filipino customs and manners, fiestas and occupations like fishing, planting, going to market, washing laundry, cooking and reading.

Done