PROPERTY FROM THE EDWARD J. NELL COLLECTION

Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mrs. Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo
confirming the authenticity of this lot

Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist

ABOUT THE WORK

In a recent interview with Leon Gallery, Mrs. Sylvia AmorsoloLazo, the maestro’s daughter, said that upon seeing the painting, memories of her father instantly flashed back. “I will simply say Papa is a genius. And I remember when he paints, it is so easy for him. So easy,” she reminisces. “Definitely, it is my father’s work,” Mrs. Lazo says. “Actually, this is the first time I have seen it when [Leon Gallery] brought it to my place for verification. But I have seen one in the 1950s, the same thing, but different strokes. So that is why I consider this as a masterpiece among the same painting compositions. The way I see it, all his styles in painting are there. The impasto [is] detailed.” Mrs. Lazo also adds that “a simple stroke will define the contour of the anatomy…As you look at the face of the woman, she looks so beautiful.” A Symbol of Filipino Nationalism Notice how, in this work, the radiance of the sunlight directly illuminates the dalaga and her charming face; she possesses a photographic likeness, a palpable realism. This is Amorsolo’s participation in the cultural self-assertion of the ‘20s, projecting the image of the Filipina to profess the pastoral indigenous as the foundation of Filipino identity amid the relentless surge of Americanized modernity. It is Amorsolo embodying the Filipino civic and cultural nationalism of the first decades of the 20th century that went hand in hand with the debates for the country’s independence after four centuries of colonial rule. Amorsolo emphasized the Filipinismo of the period (when folk motifs like the kundiman and native dances were being revived, the balagtasan that extolled the virtues of the dalaga rose to fame, and Philippine history and culture were heavily researched by Filipiniana scholars like Teodoro Kalaw) through the dalaga and the tropical sunlight as embodiments of a country whose identity is rooted in the agricultural. After all, land is intrinsically tied to one’s culture and identity. Amorsolo’s aggressive interest in pursuing the autochthonous rather than the Americanized seeped through the national consciousness amidst the foreign demand for his works. Mojares writes, “With the fever for things Philippine, Amorsolo’s art was everywhere—advertising posters, calendars, magazines, textbooks, postage stamps, even product labels. Few artists contributed as much to the country’s stock of “national” images.” Mrs. Lazo said that her father’s favorite is the mango tree, for it symbolizes the family. Aside from being a ubiquitous landmark in virtually every corner of the country, the mango tree resonates with the Filipino collective experience. It is a symbol of abundance and fertility, encapsulating the shared struggles and continuing hope of a people for an allembracing and empowering progress. As critic Alfredo Roces writes in the book Amorsolo, the maestro “gave the nation a sense of confidence in its culture, pride in its beauty, joy in its simple day-to-day living, and graciousness in the face of reality.” (Adrian Maranan)