Fernando Amorsolo

Fernando Amorsolo y Cueto (May 30, 1892

– April 24, 1972) was one of the most
important artists in the history of painting
in the Philippines.[2] Amorsolo was a
portraitist and painter of rural Philippine
landscapes. He is popularly known for his
craftsmanship and mastery in the use of
light.[3]
 Fernando Cueto Amorsolo

Born Fernando Amorsolo y

Cueto
May 30, 1892
Manila, Captaincy
General of the
Philippines, Spanish
Empire
Died April 24, 1972 (aged 79)
Quezon City, Philippines

Resting place Loyola Memorial Park,[1]

M iki Phili i
 Marikina, Philippines

Education University of the

Philippines

Known for Painting

Spouse(s) Salud Tolentino Jorge

(m. 1916; d. 1931)
Maria del Carmen
(1935–?)

Awards

National Artist of the

Philippines

Early life and education

Amorsolo was born on May 30, 1892, in
Paco, Manila.[4][5] Don Fabián de la Rosa,
his mother's cousin, was also a Filipino
painter. At the age of 13, Amorsolo
became an apprentice to De la Rosa, who
would eventually become the advocate
and guide to Amorsolo's painting career.
During this time, Amorsolo's mother
embroidered to earn money, while
Amorsolo helped by selling water color
postcards to a local bookstore for 10
centavos each. His brother, Pablo
Amorsolo, was also a painter. Amorsolo's
first success as a young painter came in
1908, when his painting Leyendo el
periódico took second place at the Bazar
Escolta, a contest organized by the
Asociacion Internacional de Artistas.
Between 1909 and 1914, he enrolled at the
Art School of the Liceo de Manila.

After graduating from the Liceo, he

entered the University of the Philippines'
School of Fine Arts, where De la Rosa
worked at the time. During college,
Fernando Amorsolo's primary influences
were the Spanish people court painter
Diego Velázquez, John Singer Sargent,
Anders Zorn, Claude Monet, Pierre-
Auguste Renoir, but mostly his
contemporary Spanish masters Joaquín
Sorolla Bastida and Ignacio Zuloaga.
Amorsolo's most notable work as a
student at the Liceo was his painting of a
young man and a young woman in a
garden, which won him the first prize in the
art school exhibition during his graduation
year. To make money during school,
Amorsolo joined competitions and did
illustrations for various Philippine
publications, including Severino Reyes’
first novel in Tagalog language, Parusa ng
Diyos ("Punishment of God"), Iñigo Ed.
Regalado's Madaling Araw ("Dawn"), as
well as illustrations for editions of the
Pasion. Amorsolo graduated with medals
from the University of the Philippines in
1914.

Career
 This section does not cite any sources.
Learn more

Antipolo by Fernando Amorsolo, depicting Filipinos

celebrating the annual pilgrimage to Antipolo, with
the pre-War cathedral depicted in the background.

After graduating from the University of the

Philippines, Amorsolo worked as a
draftsman for the Bureau of Public Works,
as a chief artist at the Pacific Commercial
Company, and as a part-time instructor at
the University of the Philippines (where he
would work for 38 years). After three years
as an instructor and commercial artist,
Amorsolo was given a grant to study at the
Academia de San Fernando in Madrid,
Spain by Filipino businessman Enrique
Zóbel de Ayala. During his seven months
in Spain, Amorsolo sketched at museums
and along the streets of Madrid,
experimenting with the use of light and
color. Through the Zóbel grant, Amorsolo
was also able to visit New York City, where
he encountered postwar impressionism
and cubism, which would be major
influences on his work.
Amorsolo set up his own studio upon his
return to Manila and painted prodigiously
during the 1920s and the 1930s. His Rice
Planting (1922), which appeared on
posters and tourist brochures, became
one of the most popular images of the
Commonwealth of the Philippines.
Beginning in the 1930s, Amorsolo's work
was exhibited widely both in the
Philippines and abroad. His bright,
optimistic, pastoral images set the tone
for Philippine painting before World War II.
Except for his darker World War II-era
paintings, Amorsolo painted quiet and
peaceful scenes throughout his career.
Amorsolo was sought after by influential
Filipinos including Luis Araneta, Antonio
Araneta and Jorge B. Vargas. Amorsolo
also became the favourite Philippine artist
of United States officials and visitors to
the country. Due to his popularity,
Amorsolo had to resort to photographing
his works and pasted and mounted them
in an album. Prospective patrons could
then choose from this catalog of his
works. Amorsolo did not create exact
replicas of his trademark themes; he
recreated the paintings by varying some
elements.
His works later appeared on the cover and
pages of children textbooks, in novels, in
commercial designs, in cartoons and
illustrations for the Philippine publications
such The Independent, Philippine
Magazine, Telembang, El Renacimiento
Filipino, and Excelsior. He was the director
of the University of the Philippine's College
of Fine Arts from 1938 to 1952.

During the 1950s until his death in 1972,

Amorsolo averaged to finishing 10
paintings a month. However, during his
later years, diabetes, cataracts, arthritis,
headaches, dizziness and the death of two
sons affected the execution of his works.
Amorsolo underwent a cataract operation
when he was 70 years old, a surgery that
did not impede him from drawing and
painting.

Amorsolo was a close friend of the

Philippine sculptor Guillermo Tolentino, the
creator of the Caloocan City monument to
the patriot Andrés Bonifacio.

Style and techniques

Sketch of a woman, whose unfinished style is
representative of Amorsolo's sketching

Women and landscapes

Amorsolo is best known for his illuminated

landscapes,[6] which often portrayed
traditional Filipino customs, culture, fiestas
and occupations. His pastoral works
presented "an imagined sense of
nationhood in counterpoint to American
colonial rule" and were important to the
formation of Filipino national identity.[2] He
was educated in the classical tradition and
aimed "to achieve his Philippine version of
the Greek ideal for the human form."[7] In
his paintings of Filipina women, Amorsolo
rejected Western ideals of beauty in favor
of Filipino ideals[8] and was fond of basing
the faces of his subjects on members of
his family.[9]

[The women I paint should have]

a rounded face, not of the oval
type often presented to us in
newspapers and magazine
illustrations. The eyes should be
exceptionally lively, not the
dreamy, sleepy type that
characterizes the Mongolian.
The nose should be of the blunt
form but firm and strongly
marked. ... So the ideal Filipina
beauty should not necessarily be
white complexioned, nor of the
dark brown color of the typical
Malayan, but of the clear skin or
fresh colored type which we
often witness when we met a
blushing girl.
 — Fernando Amorsolo[8]

Amorsolo used natural light in his

paintings and developed the backlighting
technique Chiaroscuro, which became his
artistic trademark and his greatest
contribution to Philippine painting.[3][4][10]
In a typical Amorsolo painting, figures are
outlined against a characteristic glow, and
intense light on one part of the canvas
highlights nearby details.[4] Philippine
sunlight was a constant feature of
Amorsolo's work; he is believed to have
painted only one rainy-day scene.[4]

Sketches
Amorsolo was an incessant sketch
artist,[8] often drawing sketches at his
home, at Luneta Park, and in the
countryside.[9] He drew the people he saw
around him, from farmers to city-dwellers
coping with the Japanese occupation.[8]
Amorsolo's impressionistic tendencies,
which may be seen in his paintings as well,
were at their height in his sketches.[8] His
figures were not completely finished but
were mere "suggestions" of the image.[8]

Historical paintings and

portraits
Amorsolo also painted a series of
historical paintings on pre-Colonial and
Spanish Colonization events. Amorsolo's
Making of the Philippine Flag, in particular,
was widely reproduced. His The First
Baptism in the Philippines required
numerous detailed sketches and colored
studies of its elements. These diverse
elements were meticulously and carefully
set by the artist before being transferred to
the final canvas. For his pre-colonial and
16th-century depiction of the Philippines,
Amorsolo referred to the written accounts
of Antonio Pigafetta, other available
reading materials, and visual sources He
consulted with the Philippine scholars of
the time, H. Pardo de Tavera and Epifanio
de los Santos.[11]

Amorsolo also painted oil portraits of

Presidents like General Emilio Aguinaldo,
and other prominent individuals such as
Don Alfredo Jacób and Doña Pura
Garchitorena Toral of Camarines Sur. He
also painted the wedding picture of Don
Mariano Garchitorena and Doña Caridad
Pamintuan of Pampanga.

He also did a portrait of American Senator

Warren Grant Magnuson (1905–1989), of
the Democratic Party from Washington,
whom the Warren G. Magnuson Health
Sciences Building at the University of
Washington, and the Warren G. Magnuson
Clinical Center at the National Institutes of
Health in Bethesda, Maryland are named
after.

Detail from Fernando Amorsolo's 1945 Defence of a

Filipina Woman's Honour, which is representative of
Amorsolo's World War II-era paintings. Here, a Filipino
man defends a woman, who is either his wife or
daughter, from being raped by an unseen Japanese
daughter, from being raped by an unseen Japanese
soldier. Note the Japanese military cap at the man's
foot

World War II-era works

After the onset of World War II, Amorsolo's

typical pastoral scenes were replaced by
the depictions of a war-torn nation. During
the Japanese occupation of the
Philippines during World War II, Amorsolo
spent his days at his home near the
Japanese garrison, where he sketched war
scenes from the house's windows or
rooftop.[9]

During the war, he documented the

destruction of many landmarks in Manila
and the pain, tragedy and death
experienced by Filipino people, with his
subjects including "women mourning their
dead husbands, files of people with
pushcarts and makeshift bags leaving a
dark burning city tinged with red from fire
and blood."[11] Amorsolo frequently
portrayed the lives and suffering of Filipina
women during World War II. Other World
War II-era paintings by Amorsolo include a
portrait in absentia of General Douglas
MacArthur as well as self-portraits and
paintings of Japanese occupation
soldiers.[4] In 1948, Amorsolo's wartime
paintings were exhibited at the
Malacañang Presidential Palace.[4]
Critical evaluation
Amorsolo's supporters consider his
portrayals of the countryside as "the true
reflections of the Filipino Soul."[7]

Amorsolo has been accused, however, of

succumbing to commercialism and merely
producing souvenir paintings for American
soldiers.[7] Critic Francisco Arcellana wrote
in 1948 that Amorsolo's paintings "have
nothing to say" and that they were not hard
to understand because "there is nothing to
understand."[7] Critics have criticized
Amorsolo's portraits of Philippine
Commonwealth personalities, his large,
mid-career anecdotal works, and his large
historical paintings.[7] Of the latter, critics
have said that his "artistic temperament
was simply not suited to generating the
sense of dramatic tension necessary for
such works."[7]

Another critic, however, while noting that

most of Amorsolo's estimated ten
thousand works were not worthy of his
talent, argues that Amorsolo's oeuvre
should nonetheless judged by his best
works instead of his worst.[7] Amorsolo's
small landscapes, especially those of his
early career, have been judged as his best
works, "hold[ing] well together plastic-
ally."[7] Amorsolo may "be considered a
master of the Philippine landscape as
landscape, even outranking Luna and
Hidalgo who also did some Philippine
landscapes of the same measurements."[7]

Death and legacy

Amorsolo's grave in Loyola Memorial Park, Marikina

After being confined at the St. Luke's
Hospital in Quezon City for two months,
Amorsolo died of heart failure at the age
of 79 on April 24, 1972.

Four days after his death, Amorsolo was

honored as the first National Artist in
Painting at the Cultural Center of the
Philippines by then-President Ferdinand
Marcos.

The volume of paintings, sketches and

studies of Amorsolo is believed to have
reached more than 10,000 pieces.
Amorsolo was an important influence on
contemporary Filipino art and artists, even
beyond the so-called "Amorsolo school."[7]
Amorsolo's influence can be seen in many
landscape paintings by Filipino artists,
including early landscape paintings by
abstract painter Federico Aguilar Alcuaz.[7]

In 2003, Amorsolo's children founded the

Fernando C. Amorsolo Art Foundation,
which is dedicated to preserving Fernando
Amorsolo's legacy, promoting his style and
vision, and preserving a national heritage
through the conservation and promotion
of his works.[12]

During the post-war period, Insular Life

commissioned Amorsolo to create a
series of paintings of historical events for
their offices (and which were subsequently
used in Insular Life calendars from '50s to
'80s). [1] .

Amorsolo paintings in the art

market

At a 2001 auction in Wellesley,

Massachusetts, two original 1950s
paintings by Amorsolo, The Cockfight and
Resting Under the Trees, were bought by a
New Jersey collector for $36,000 and
$31,500, respectively.[13] During a 2002
episode of Antiques Roadshow, a
Sotheby's antiques appraiser estimated
that an attendee's signed 1945 rural
landscape painting by Amorsolo could
fetch between $30,000 and $50,000 at
auction.[14] At a 1996 Christie's auction,
Amorsolo's The Marketplace went for
$174,000.[15] In April 2002, Portrait of
Fernanda De Jesus was bought for
US$377,947.

On November 30, 2009, the Family

Gathering Fruit sold for US$77,257 at
Christie's. In December 2009, Fruit
Gatherer was auctioned off in Maryland, in
record-breaking manner, topping 19th- and
20th-century European and American
paintings. In May 2010, the highest priced
Amorsolo painting was auctioned off at
Christie's for about US$440,000.

Museums

The Jorge B. Vargas Museum and

Filipiniana Research Center in Manila
displays a major collection of Amorsolo's
work.[16]

Major works
This section needs additional citations for
verification. Learn more

Major works by Amorsolo include:[10]

Babaeng nagbabasa
Afternoon Meal of the Workers
(Noonday Meal of the Rice Workers)
(1939)
Assassination of Governor Bustamante
Bataan
The Bombing of the Intendencia (1942)
The Building of Intramuros
Burning of the Idol
The Burning of Manila (1946)
El Ciego (1928)
The Conversion of the Filipinos (1931)
Corner of Hell
Dalagang Bukid (1936)
Defense of a Filipina Woman's Honor
(1945)
La destruccion de Manila por los
salvajes japoneses (The Destruction of
Manila by the Savage Japanese)
Early Filipino State Wedding
Early Sulu Wedding
The Explosion (1944)
The First Baptism in the Philippines
The First Mass in the Philippines
Fruit Gatherer (1950)
Fruit Pickers Harvesting Under The
Mango Tree (1939)
Maiden in a Stream (1921)
Making of the Philippine Flag
Marca Demonio (1917)
The Mestiza (1943)
My Wife, Salud (1920)
One Casualty
Our Lady of Light (1950)
Planting Rice (1946)
Princess Urduja
The Rape of Manila (1942)
Rice Planting (1922)
Sale of Panay
Sikatuna
Sunday Morning Going To Town (1958)
 US Senator Warren Magnuson Oil
Portrait (1958)
Traders
El Violinista (The Violinist)

Awards and achievements

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verification. Learn more

1908 – 2nd Prize, Bazar Escolta tea and

taki (Asocacion Internacional de
Artistas), for Levendo Periodico
1922 – 1st Prize, Commercial and
Industrial Fair in the Manila Carnival
1929 – 1st Prize, New York's World Fair,
for Afternoon Meal of Rice Workers
(also known as Noonday Meal of the
Rice Workers)
1940 – Outstanding University of the
Philippines Alumnus Award
1959 – Gold Medal, UNESCO National
Commission
1961 – Rizal Pro Patria Award
1961 – Honorary Doctorate in the
Humanities, from the Far Eastern
University
1963 – Diploma of Merit from the
University of the Philippines
1963 – Patnubay ng Sining at
Kalinangan Award, from the City of
Manila
 1963 – Republic Cultural Heritage
Award
1972 – Gawad CCP para sa Sining, from
the Cultural Center of the Philippines[10]

In 1972, Fernando Amorsolo became the

first Filipino to be distinguished as the
Philippine's National Artist in Painting. He
was named as the "Grand Old Man of
Philippine Art" during the inauguration of
the Manila Hilton's art center, where his
paintings were exhibited on January 23,
1969.

Major exhibitions
Outside the Philippines, his exhibitions
were held in Belgium, at the Exposicion de
Panama in 1914, at a one-man show at the
Grand Central Art Galleries in New York
City in 1925, and at the National Museum
in Herran on November 6, 1948. During the
1931 Paris Exposition, Amorsolo exhibited
one of his anecdotal paintings, The
Conversion of the Filipinos. Amorsolo's
entries at the Exposicion in Panama were
a portrait of U.S. President Woodrow
Wilson and the piece La Muerte de
Socrates. At the 1948 National Museum in
Herran, Amorsolo exhibition was
sponsored by the Art Association of the
Philippines. In 1950, Amorsolo exhibited
two more historical paintings, Faith Among
the Ruins and Baptism of Rajah Humabon
at ssthe Missionary Art Exhibit in Rome. In
1979, Fernando Amorsolo's legacy as a
painter was celebrated through an
exhibition of his works at the Art Center of
the Manila Hilton.[6] His art was also
featured in a 2007 exhibition in Havana.[17]

Personal life
This section does not cite any sources.
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During his lifetime, Amorsolo was married

twice and had 20 children. In 1916, he
married Salud Tolentino Jorge, with whom
he had six children. Amorsolo's first wife
died in 1931 leaving him with six children.
He had six more children by a common-
law wife, named Virginia Guevarra Santos.
Amorsolo have three children with her
namely Manuel (followed in his father's
footstep, with a degree in Fine Arts from
the University of the Philippines), Jorge
and Norma when he met his second wife.
Subsequently, Virginia found an
engagement ring in one of Amorsolo's
drawers; she knew about Maria, that
prompted her to leave his house with her
three children. In 1935, he married Maria
del Carmen who gave him eight more
children. Among her daughters are Sylvia
Amorsolo-Lazo and Luz. But as Maria was
giving birth with his children, Virginia had
three more children with Amorsolo. His
reputation was growing as fast as his
brood and his work was more than enough
to provide for his rather large family. Six of
Amorsolo's children became artists
themselves.

See also
Arts of the Philippines
Ginebra San Miguel
José Honorato Lozano
Juan Luna
Fabián de la Rosa
 Boxer Codex
Justiniano Asuncion

References
1. "LOOK: Amorsolo statue, other
landmarks at Loyola Memorial Park" .
The Philippine Star. 1 November
2018. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
2. Hallman, Tim (11 August 2006).
"Pioneers of Philippine Art: Luna,
Amorsolo, Zóbel" (PDF). Asian Art
Museum. Archived from the original
(PDF) on 2012-02-20. Retrieved
8 October 2016.
3. "Fernando C. Amorsolo" . National
Commission for Culture and the Arts.
Archived from the original on 15
March 2008. Retrieved 8 October
2016.
4. Gale, Thomson (2005–2006).
"Dernando Amorsolo" . Encyclopedia
of World Biography. Thomson
Corporation. Retrieved 8 October
2016.
5. Wang, Nickie (13 September 2008).
"Introducing Fernando Amorsolo to a
new generation" . Manila Standard
Today. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
6. "Fernando Amorsolo". Filipinos in
History. Manila, Philippines: National
Historical Institute. Available for
download though nhi.gov.ph
Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback
Machine (requires registration).
7. Benesa, Leo. "An Amorsolo Festival"
Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback
Machine (originally from Philippine
Sunday Express, November 16,
1975). What is Philippine about
Philippine Art? and Other Essays,
Manila: National Commission for
Culture and the Arts, 2000, pp. 24-27.
 8. Paras-Perez, Rodriguez (1992).
Fernando C. Amorsolo: Drawings.
Manila: Lopez Museum.
OCLC 702602295 .
9. Amorsolo Lazo, Sylvia.
"Remembering Papa" Archived
2007-07-02 at the Wayback Machine.
Lopez Memorial Museum (2003).
Retrieved June 30, 2007.
10. "Fernando C. Amorsolo (1892-
1972)" . GlobalPinoy.com. Archived
from the original on 19 July 2010.
Retrieved 30 June 2007.
11. Ocampo, Ambeth. "Amorsolo's Brush
with History" Archived 2007-06-21
 at the Wayback Machine. Lopez
Memorial Museum (2003). Retrieved
June 30, 2007.
12. "Fernando C. Amorsolo Art
Foundation" .
FernandoAmorsolo.com. Retrieved
July 2, 2007.
13. "Estate Sale Yields Fine Art, Furniture
Gems in Wellesley, Mass." Archived
2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
Antiques and the Arts online, January
16, 2001. Retrieved on July 2, 2007
14. "New Orleans, LA (2002)" (Antiques
Roadshow program #619, Morial
Convention Center, aired November
 11, 2002). PBS.org, retrieved on: July
2, 2007
15. Bacani, Cesar (Reported by Steven
Poh/Kuala Lumpur, Keith
Loveard/Jakarta and Susan
Berfield/Hong Kong). "The Fine Art of
the Sale: Sotheby's and Christie's are
Targeting Southeast Asia," Asiaweek
(April 26, 1996), retrieved on: July 2,
2007.
16. Cruz, Jasmine (28 January 2015).
"The Vargas Museum permanent
collection: Amorsolos and more" .
BusinessWorld. Retrieved
6 September 2016.
17. "Havana Inaugurates Philippine
Modern Exhibit." Philippine
Department of Foreign Affairs, March
2, 2007. Retrieved August 1, 2007.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media

related to Fernando Amorsolo.

Fernando C. Amorsolo Art Foundation

Photographs of Amorsolo's palette ,
wallet , and other personal effects at
flickr.com.
Amorsolo works at Allinson Gallery.
Amorsolo works at Frazer Fine Art.
 Amorsolo bio at Geringer Art.

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