Leon Gallery wishes to thank Mrs. Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo for confirming the authenticity of this lot

Provenance: Provenance: Private Collection, USA

ABOUT THE WORK

Although the largesse of Amorsolo’s body of work includes many female Caucasian subjects, several aspects of this work shows Amorsolo’s break with the western depiction of the nude. Here, a gold brown complexion and other details identify her as a Filipina with or without the setting. This nude washerwoman may be viewed as one of Amorsolo’s efforts to create Filipino image icons with which the people could identify. Amorsolo used golden tones on the woman’s back to highlight the verdant atmosphere. Amorsolo was portraying a private rural ritual as much as creating and celebrating an ideal type of Filipina womanhood, in the purest physical sense. The natural setting of flora and river also romanticizes the subject. Amorsolo delighted in the intrinsic charm of lovely women au naturel, and in lush, tropical scenes. He sought to combine the loveliness of the female form with sensuality of color. The manner in which the rippling, broken sunlight on the river is set against the bare nakedness of the flesh is a masterly exposition of the way in which Amorsolo captures a fleeting moment of moving and changing lights while not being impressionistic. The gleaming flesh of the woman, carefully made distinct in the picture, forms a living mass of light right of centre, while the rippling waves of water to the left, form a visual counterweight.