Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

          During the early American Period, romantic genre paintings and portraiture  prevailed.  Fernando Amorsolo, the foremost exponent of the tradition.
          The color treatment of the portrait is relatively rich, made even headier by the  subject’s long hair. 
          Amorsolo depicts her as an intelligent and sensitive woman, her face holding  and expression of slight vulnerability.
          One would assume by the chromatic brightness that the late afternoon sun  is penetrating the room where the sitter is.
          Executed in 1930, this portrait of a girl is Amorsolo in the full flush of his style.  In his farmscapes, the flickering light background would invariably find a smiling, pretty barrio lass set against it; but here, the backlighting is rendered in fine,  delicate lines of the lustrous, curly hair.