Provenance: Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

No other artist has perhaps approached the Filipina as a subject matter in painting more intensely and devoted than BenCab. For years, the National Artist has interpreted Sabel, who has achieved iconic status, in a variety of embodiments and environments, but still notable for her swaddle of loose garment. In this particular work, the artist depicts a different figure, but is still endowed with BenCab’s signature palette and flowing garment. Revealing her clavicle and shoulder, the subject is confident in her skin and yet is circumspect, showing a tight smile and putting keeping her hands together. She sits leaning deftly forward, as if about to listen to an interesting turn in the conversation or about to offer her two cents. Composed and elegant, this subject joins the privileged roster of BenCab’s renditions of the Filipina.