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

ABOUT THE WORK

Provenance: Madelyn Read’s grandmother, also named Madelyn Read, was born and raised in Hawaii. She married the South Pacific representative of Sun Life Canada then moved to Manila, raising Madelyn’s mother and her sister. The family was interned in the University of Santo Tomas that was used as a prison camp during the Japanese Occupation. Directly from Amorsolo, both Madelyn’s grandmother and her sister purchased his paintings. This one was passed on to Madelyn’s mother, Margaret Read, and after her death, to Madelyn. Amorsolo had developed his own rustic vision strong enough to hold its own, against even those Philippine art movements that sought to revolutionize or undermine its very foundations. His art often captures the steady, unhurried pace of rural life, removing the viewer from the fast, hectic pace that came with an unrelenting acceptance of reality and the creeping diaspora of modernity. Amorsolo reminds us of the beauty and simplicity of everyday actions and experiences, even if his messages are tampered in a pure and idealized form. Amorsolo’s canvases are sparsely populated, but once everything had been arranged, Amorsolo would make a detailed drawing of every human figure in the pose the composition dictated. Amorsolo’s works are not the result of any studio defined, culturally filtered notion of landscape as such, but reflects instead a very particular kind of visual vocabulary of forms—we see and feel the light of the midday sun; we perceive the cool, onrushing river, even the wetness of the clothes being washed. If the composition doesn’t have Amorsolo’s all-encompassing skies, it shows great skill at showing light reflected from the rushing water. The river is a movement of rich shades of green and ochres. Everywhere life is expressed and bathed in an ethereal blanket of light.