Provenance: Private Collection, USA

ABOUT THE WORK

Fernando Amorsolo’s great body of work can be classified into several groupings. One such group is his portraiture. Some of them finished instantly, others over a longer period, depending upon the interest and mood of the painter and probably the reaction of the sitter. Amorsolo was a master portraitist, since his forte was figure painting. As the most popular painter around, Fernando Amorsolo was happily saddled all his life with portrait commissions. Portraits made up a large proportion of his works. They were mostly commissioned works depicting leaders in society and industry, and their loved ones, as well as Americans residing in Manila during the American colonial period. His portraits stand as mute testimonies to the challenges of portrait painting, and the clients’ challenge to creativity. In the 1950s and 1960s, he chose to portray women — and men — ot meet the demands of his clients, all of whom is a social registry in itself.