This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by Mrs. Josefa Joya-Baldovino confirming the authenticity of this lot

ABOUT THE WORK

The figurative side of Joya has always produced gentle, contemplative images in a romantic manner. Created in 1993, this pastel on paper creation imbues the genre with a soft, ethereal quality. With her face in profile and evidently showing the white handkerchief used as a bandana, the mother carries the infant gently in the crook of her arm, stabilizing the warm embrace with the other hand. Joya even “documents” the exotically romantic imagery of provincial dresses. The mother sports the traditional baro’t saya, whose billowing butterfly sleeves evoke an almost transparent quality. The mother nursing her child is endowed here with an earthy yet elegiac quality. For all its logic and clarity the picture remains a remarkable example of Joya’s powers of pictorial composition. With his sure-footed and eloquent technique, the National Artist portrays the unbreakable bond between a mother and her child.