Provenance: Private collection, USA

ABOUT THE WORK

On September 21, 1958, This Week released its selection of "Six Outstanding Filipino Painters," chosen by a veritable panel of judges from the various fields of the arts. Anita Magsaysay-Ho emerged triumphant, the only woman who earned a spot in the highly publicized list. The secret that earned her a spot? It's all in her depiction of women in all their glorious delight. As a fitting culmination to Anita Magsaysay-Ho's 110th birth anniversary and the worthy recognition of her maiden participation at the recently concluded 60th Venice Biennale through her 1944 Self-Portrait, the earliest known work by the revered modernist has come home to the Philippines. Here, Anita's now iconic women make their grand debut in a piece highly influenced by her esteemed professor, Fernando Amorsolo. This 1934 piece, titled Lavanderas by the Stream, is the earliest painting by Anita Magsaysay-Ho to come to the market. This work is a rarity; every monograph written about Anita has always started her chronological presentation of works in the 1940s, missing the gap that could be filled by her earliest works from the 1930s. This work fills that gap in Anita's visual chronology of her oeuvre, a veritable window into her conservative beginnings before she metamorphosed into a pioneering Filipina modernist. When Anita created this work, she was in the final year of her studies at the UP School of Fine Arts. Students in their fourth year are required to take up the course "Advanced Landscape Painting," helmed by none other than Fernando Amorsolo. A description of the course from the 1932-33 General Catalogue of the University of the Philippines details that classes in this course are conducted in the nearby open localities selected by the professor. Anita wrote in her memoirs that Amorsolo sent off his students to travel to different locations within the School of Fine Arts environs and paint there on the spot. Anita depicts in the work at hand—painted en plein air—a scene from rural Malate, particularly the vicinity of nearby De La Salle College, a less than 2-kilometer walk from the School of Fine Arts and “at the time was still a rural area," she recalled. Anita wrote in her old diary about a moment when she and her classmates/friends, Amparing and Consuelo, painted “a beautiful landscape” with “some bedraggled nipa huts among clamps of bamboos” in the background. That diary entry is accompanied by Anita's sketch reminiscing about that moment, a drawing depicting a scenery similar to the work on offer. The setting of Lavanderas by the Stream also bears similarities to a particular anecdote in Anita’s memoir, in which she waited for Amorsolo in the vicinity of La Salle to come and critique a painting she did of the locale (a story recounted in the previous essay). One can also imagine in the work on offer how Anita enthusiastically painted this piece, all the while waiting for Amorsolo to assess her progress. Amorsolo's influence can be heavily discerned, especially when viewed from the context of his plein air landscapes. There are the human figures outlined through colors and candid impastos; the short and swift strokes that seemingly pulsate and breathe life into the composition; and the contrast of areas of light and shadow achieved through the manipulation of texture and tones. Of course, there are the lavanderas—a favorite of Amorsolo and the theme of humans living in harmony with nature. Anita learned from Amorsolo the practice of priming the canvas with gray paint, resulting in a pastel-like quality that complements the luminosity of oil paint. "All of us painted our canvases in grey," Anita said to Cid Reyes in an interview. This painting is an image of radiance and serenity, which would eventually be translated into Anita's modernist practice. Even as a modernist, the "Amorsolo effect" was still apparent in the way Anita depicted her women as delightful and serene in their labor, emphasizing the dignity inherent—and that should be endowed to the most precious of all endeavors. This is much like Amorsolo, who blessed her dalaga with all the world's exuberance. While she eventually forged her formidable path to modernism, Anita never renounced her conservative upbringing. "She staunchly believes that one can learn true art only by studying the basic principles set down by the classicists," writes an article in The Sunday Times Magazine following her historic win at the 1952 AAP." For Anita, a good painting is a good painting, whether conservative or modern. What binds the modernist Anita and the pre-war, conservative Anita is that both embodied and found bliss in women at work. With the sheer warmness of its tones, the composition naturally exudes the vitality of living. Here lies Anita's joy and confidence, enlivened by the loving home where she grew up surrounded by people, especially her Nana and her mother Amalia, who nurtured her with unwavering support for her passion for the arts. Anita would say in an interview seven decades later, in May 2005: "In my works, I always celebrate the women of the Philippines. I regard them with deep admiration, and they continue to inspire me—their movements and gestures, their expressions of happiness and frustrations; their diligence and shortcomings; their joy of living. I know very well the strength, hard work, and quiet dignity of Philippine women, for after all, I am one of them." Here in this work is presented—for the very first time in Anita's canvas—the peasant and rural women whom Anita exalted, and who would also put her at the forefront of Philippine post-war painting, perfectly materialized in her historic First Prize win at the 5th AAP Annual in 1952 for her now iconic The Cooks