Accompanied by a certificate issued by Fundacion Sansó confirming the authenticity of this lot

Provenance: Private Collection

Literature: Roces, Alfredo. Sansó. Manila: Luis Ma. Araneta, Filcapital Development Corporation, and General Bank and Trust Company, 1976. Full color illustration and photo caption on page 27.

ABOUT THE WORK

In 1948, a 19-year-old Juvenal Sansó enrolled at the UP School of Fine Arts, taking up classes as a special student. It would be the first time the young Sansó would undertake formal training in the arts. Before this, he had only studied painting under the tutelage of Alejandro Celis. Alfredo Roces writes in Sansó: "The art tutor opened a whole universe to Juvenal...He diligently learned every skill his tutor introduced him to until, at last, the tutor told him there was nothing more he could teach the young student at home." Celis was a contemporary of Amorsolo at UP and among the first graduates of the fine arts department. It was he who told Sansó to acquire formal training at UP. It was a precarious passage for him to venture formally into the visual arts since "his family expected him to outgrow...his dabbling with drawing, become more serious, and help in the family business." Sansó would eventually persuade his family to study as a full-time student, gradually veering away from his affairs at his family's wrought-iron shop. He now had the luxury of time to grow and mature as an artist. At UP, Amorsolo took the helm of the fine arts department. Guillermo Tolentino, Dominador Castañeda, Toribio Herrera, and Ireneo Miranda served as faculty members. In his classes, Sansó was taught by Castañeda the proper handling of pastels and oils. But it was Amorsolo who became his greatest influence. Although the former did not become his professor, Sansó "wanted to paint like the maestro," as Roces puts it. Since academism prevailed then, with Amorsolo, Castañeda, Herrera, and Miranda at its forefront, Sansó was deeply exposed to the rudiments of the conservative tradition. Such is the case with this 1949 nude painting from Sansó’s early period. Sansó's depiction of the female body with utmost gracefulness harks back to Amorsolo's practice. Emphasis on the subject's curves is reminiscent of the maestro's intricate delineation of the human body. Like his foremost luminary, Sansó paints the nude as a celebration of the female form. Despite the conservative influences, the piece's solitary atmosphere and application of heavy and dark tones foreshadow Sansó's 'Black Period,' where themes of anguish and desolation prevail. (A.M.)