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

Provenance: León Gallery, The Asian Cultural Council Auction 2017, Makati City, 2 February 2017, Lot 123

ABOUT THE WORK

The 1920s was a period of firsts for Fernando Amorsolo. By the 1920s, Amorsolo had mastered the art of landscapes. Shortly after returning to Manila in 1920 from his brief Spanish interlude, Amorsolo painted his first major masterpiece titled My Wife, which was a portrait of his wife, Salud. Unfortunately, this gem of a painting perished in the Battle of Manila in 1945. 1921 marked Amorsolo's transitional period, which Alfredo Roces notes in the book Amorsolo as a period marked by "a shedding-off of some of the superficial influences of his European sojourn while studying the quality of Philippine life and light around him." Amorsolo's maturation as an artist would not take long to become apparent. In 1922, he painted his first "serious genre" painting: the iconic Rice Planting, which became the face of the Philippine Commonwealth and was featured on numerous posters and tourist brochures. 1927 marked Amorsolo's first major award recognizing his dexterity in landscape painting: the first prize for landscape at the Manila Carnival Commercial and Industrial Fair of 1927. The work at hand, Los Baños, comes from that same triumphant period in Amorsolo's career. The 1920s was also when Amorsolo first showcased his disciplined spontaneity. In a 1969 interview with Nick Joaquin for his article 'Homage to the Maestro' and published in Free Press, Amorsolo shares: "When I came back from Spain, I did nothing but paint and paint out in the open, studying the light." In a prior interview with Neal Cruz in 1960 for Insurance Line, Amorsolo remarks: "You have to work fast outdoors," Amorsolo remarks. "Light changes very rapidly, and you have to be fast in order to catch the mood with which you started out. Amorsolo's practice of working en plein air spontaneously but firmly during his golden years is discerned in this work. His landscapes during this time possess that disciplined spontaneity borne from the creative autonomy inherent in landscape painting and working outdoors. Influences of his foremost luminaries, Diego Velasquez and Joaquin Sorolla, are also evident in the manner Amorsolo imbibed Velasquez's 'vision of the moment' technique and Sorolla's character as a 'discerning and active observer of nature.' Amorsolo's heavy impastos and swift brushstrokes endow the painting with a "snapshot of the moment" character. Light emanating from the background effectively illuminates the entire composition. (A.M.)