This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by Mrs. Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo confirming the authenticity of this lot

ABOUT THE WORK

The importance of portraits, realistic or otherwise, cannot be underestimated in any art, culture, even in this digital age of instant communications. In all Asian cultures, from Indonesia to India, from the Philippines to China, from Japan and Korea to Malaysia and Singapore, for example, figurative art remains the cornerstone of many painters’ oeuvre. The viewer would think more highly of that type of portraiture which reveals character than mere likeness. The viewer would rather that the painter were the critic than the flatterer of his sitters. In discussing Amorsolo’s portraits it is difficult not to begin with the cliché that he was the greatest Filipino portrait painter of all time. It is clear that Amorsolo’s details of facial expression, clothes, jewelry, and colors come from keen observation. Like a dry run detail from Da Vinci’s the Last Supper, this drawing holds our attention because of the acuity of the mind behind the facial expression portrayed. However, part of its fascination lies in the vagueness of the subject matter.