Provenance: Private Collection, Makati City

ABOUT THE WORK

Imelda Cajipe Endaya writes that “Many appreciate Lorenzo’s work as a refinement of Philippine modernist painting…” With its rich and warm colors painted in a light key and its splendid loose handling, this work may be regarded as the masterpiece of the new manner which, in the words of Cajipe Endaya: “…evolved from the Edades tradition that initially shocked a conservative art audience.” Perhaps most remarkable is the color, here inseparable from lighting restricted only by the warm tonality which has been a Lorenzo signature. This picture is less anecdotal, and the emphasis is on the beauty of the color. The colors are sketchily applied, and detail is sacrificed to achieve an overall effect in an expressionistic manner with emphasis on light and colorization. The human forms have lost that complexity of structure and quantity of surface detail, a style which Lorenzo brought back with him upon returning to the Philippines from Italy before the war. The mother and child is rendered from combined touches of burnt amber, sienna, vermilion, crimson and bluish greens. On the dress of the mother and shirt of the child, all hues are moderated by generous yet varying amounts of white to create tints. Otherwise, they are mixed with a dash of respective complimentary colors to modulate intensities. It is with the use of the same intensities of colors that Lorenzo brings out the warm, heartfelt humanism of the subjects.