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

ABOUT THE WORK

The legendary Susan Magalona is yet another of the women whom Amorsolo made immortal without preserving anything more than her mystique and appearance. The elegant presence in this quietly luminous full body length portrayal reveals, better than is possible in writing, the strong personality of the subject. Dressing up for the occassion, Ms Magalona’s almost androgynous getup, softened by the gently permed hair reflects genteel affluence. Amorsolo made his famous subject a symbol of gentle aloofness from the banality of the world. The composition radiates a carefree mood, characteristic of the bourgeois leisure activity from this period. Her structured get up — equestrian’s pants and all — forms an area of strong contrast which acts as a foil, intensifying perception of the architectural backdrop of the picture. Whether the clothes shown in works of art are charming or elegant, authoritative or casual, it is clear that fashion in painting, especially portrait painting is not just a matter of surface appearances but points to deeper complexities of the zeitgeist. Ms. Magalona’s languid gaze glows amid the depths of the contrasting brick background. She encapsulates the sophisticated heights of the fashion of the moment in a spontaneous portrayal free of formality and abundant detail. In the book “Fernando Amorsolo: Seven Museum Exhibition” Purissima Benitez Johannot wrote: “(Amorsolo) portrayed women as elegant, polished and beautiful, turning his waiting list of such commissions into a veritable chronicle of the wealthy.”