ABOUT THE WORK

By the 1920s, Amorsolo had mastered the Filipino genre painting with its idyllic renditions of country life against the backdrop of the lushness of the landscape. He also made many outdoor studies of the Filipino countryside in an ardent endeavor to capture the light and color of what he observed. Amorsolo was not a social commentator, but an aesthete who hoped to emphasize the finer qualities of his country and the people, from the beauty of the natural environment, to the natural grace of the common people and the dignity of their life and labor. “Resting and Cooking under the Tree”, is Amorsolo country at its sunniest. The noon light glares on the bamboo behind the tree and the ripe grains of rice being harvested by farmers in the middle distance. Sled insinuates itself from the foreground edges and lead the eye to rest upon the resting figures on the shade, one of whom is cooking a meal over a fire whose orange glow licks the hunkering woman and intensifies the already brimming brilliance of the rice fields.