AMORSOLO

Fernando C. Amorsolo (1892-1972), the first National Artist of the Philippines, was known for
his oil paintings of rural life made in the classical style. He also made a number of commissioned
portraits of individuals and families at the peak of his career. This gallery contains over 100
drawings by Amorsolo, who made a series of black-and-white pencil and ink sketches and oil
studies of his subjects prior to making the final artwork. These include rural landscapes and
seascapes, portraits, indigenous people, and mostly genre and everyday scenes that depict life in
the countryside, where Amorsolo had spent his early childhood. Also displayed is a work by his
nephew, painter Cesar Amorsolo.

The country had its first National Artist in Fernando C. Amorsolo. The official title
“Grand Old Man of Philippine Art” was bestowed on Amorsolo when the Manila Hilton
inaugurated its art center on January 23, 1969 with an exhibit of a selection of his
works. Returning from his studies abroad in the 1920s, Amorsolo developed the
backlighting technique that became his trademark where figures, a cluster of leaves,
spill of hair, the swell of breast, are seen aglow on canvas. This light, Nick Joaquin
opines, is the rapture of a sensualist utterly in love with the earth, with the Philippine
sun, and is an accurate expression of Amorsolo’s own exuberance. His citation
underscores all his years of creative activity which have “defined and perpetuated a
distinct element of the nation’s artistic and cultural heritage”.

Among others, his major works include the following: Maiden in a Stream(1921)-GSIS
collection; El Ciego (1928)-Central Bank of the Philippines collection; Dalagang Bukid
(1936) – Club Filipino collection; The Mestiza (1943) – National Museum of the
Philippines collection; Planting Rice (1946)-UCPB collection; Sunday Morning Going
to Town (1958)-Ayala Museum Collection.

http://ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/culture-profile/national-artists-of-the-philippines/fernando-
amorsolo/

Biography
by Edwin A. Martinez
Fernando Amorsolo was born on May 30, 1892 in Calle Herran in Paco,
Manila to Pedro Amorsolo and Bonifacia Cueto. Although born in the
nation’s capital, Amorsolo would spend most of his childhood in the small town
setting of Daet in Camarines Norte where his love for the simple rural life
would become the foundation for his artistic output for which he is most well-
known.

The Early Years

Amorsolo’s earliest memories would bring him back to a quiet life in the
countryside. When he was only seven months old, his father moved the family
to Daet to work as a bookkeeper for two abaca firms. Pedro was able to earn a
modest income, enough to keep his family comfortable.

Fernando showed early signs of his artistic talent. He would go out to the coast
to draw pictures of the ships by the wharves. It was his mother who recognized
the young Amorsolo’s talent. She would send her son’s drawings to her cousin
Fabian dela Rosa, a prominent painter in Manila. At this early age, Amorsolo
displayed an affinity for the rural landscape --- a reflection of his own small
world.

Tragedy struck early in Amorsolo’s life. One night, when Fernando was still
very young, his father was awakened by shouts coming from outside his window. It was the head of the
revolutionary movement fighting against the Spaniards demanding that Amorsolo’s half brother, the eldest
son Perico, join the group. Against his father’s wishes, Perico relented and went down to join the rebels.
The family never saw him again. After the failure of the 1896 uprising, neighbors told the family that they
saw Perico, bound with a bamboo pole strapped to his back, being taken to jail. He was later executed
by the Spaniards. Shattered with grief by the death of his son, Amorsolo’s father Pedro never recovered
from the ordeal and died of a heart attack a few years later.

Amorsolo’s penchant for depicting an idealized world is viewed by his critics as the work of someone who
has never experienced pain in his life. It is apparent that the artist’s preference was not due to a lack of
exposure to the ills of society but to a conscious effort to hang on to what is pure and good before the
harsh realities of the world shattered his peaceful life in the countryside.

His father died when Amorsolo was eleven years old. Before he passed away, Pedro made his wife
promise to give Fernando a proper art education. The widowed Bonifacia gathered her family and
returned to Manila in hopes of finding better prospects to provide for her family. Her cousin Don Fabian
dela Rosa opened his doors to the family. It was here that Amorsolo had his first real exposure to the art
world.

To make ends meet, Bonifacia did embroidery to feed her family. Fernando made himself useful by
assisting Don Fabian in his studio. It was during this time that Amorsolo received his first art instruction
from Don Fabian. The family’s limited financial means made it difficult for the artist to receive consistent
formal art instruction. He earned money the only way he knew how. Amorsolo drew sketches and sold
them for 15 centavos a piece to help his family and to pay for his schooling. Despite the family’s financial
difficulties, in 1914, he finally earned his degree, with honors, as a member of the first graduating class of
the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts.

Amorsolo lived during a turbulent time in the Philippines. He came of age during a transition period in
Philippine history. The former Spanish colony became a territory of the United States of America. As
American influence slowly crept into Filipino culture in the bigger cities, the artist yearned for the life he
knew during his early childhood days in Daet. This clearly manifested itself in his artistic output where he
clearly showed a partiality towards the rural setting where American culture was slow to trickle down. His
paintings would embody an affinity for the traditions and lifestyle he knew during the
Spanish era. His canvases were filled with scenes of fiestas, old churches and rituals that were the
legacy of the Philippines’ former colonial masters.

http://www.fernandocamorsolo.com/biography.html

The artist became a professor in his early 20’s and was already establishing himself in the art world. At
the age of 25, he was already married to Salud

Jorge and had a daughter, Virginia, when he caught the eye of one of the most influential figures in
Filipino society. Amorsolo had designed the logo for Ginebra San Miguel, still in use in its original form
today, depicting St. Michael vanquishing the devil. The owner of the beverage company, Don Enrique
Zobel, a leading figure in the business community and an ardent patron of the arts, was so impressed by
his work that he offered to send Amorsolo to the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid for further
studies with a generous stipend for himself and his young family. The artist took the standard entrance
exam at the Academia. To Amorsolo’s surprise, after evaluating his work, the school informed him that,
based on the results, they would accept him not as a student but as a professor at the school.

Amorsolo was a painfully shy man. After his acceptance at the Academia, a banquet was held in his
honor. When he was escorted into the banquet hall, he was so nervous that he excused himself to go to
the men’s room. He hurriedly went through the back door and went back to his hotel room. A school
official later found him and prevailed on him to return to the banquet. He steadfastly refused. It is
ironic that someone as talented and accomplished as Amorsolo was also known for his diffidence.
Throughout his career, he shied away from any public event that was thrown in his honor. His
confidence was almost purely reserved and confined to the practice of his trade. His precise brush work
certainly shows someone who was very sure of his artistic skills. So confident was Amorsolo of his brush
stroke that art conservationists have frequently been surprised at how thinly paint was applied on his
paintings. It took him significantly fewer attempts, and consequently fewer layers of paint, to get the
results that he wanted.

Amorsolo was by no means a Renaissance man. He had no other significant talent other than
illustration and painting. Unlike artists such as John Singer Sargent, who was also an accomplished
pianist, Amorsolo’s hands were permanently and solely associated with the paint brush. As a
consequence of this exclusive association, the artist truly became the master of his craft.

Amorsolo eventually settled in and spent seven months in Madrid where he was able to observe the
works of the masters. He visited art galleries and museums to study the works of Diego Velasquez, El
Greco, Goya, Monet, Manet, Van Dyck, Sargent, and Joaquin Sorolla. It is here where he honed his skills
and perfected his technique. Diego Velasquez was one of his major influences, learning from his
superior brush work, painterly style, and mastery of color. He would also learn from and build upon
Sorolla’s technique of utilizing the sun to draw out the most dramatic effects from the heightened sunlit
colors and dramatic contrasts between light and shade. The perfection of this technique would set
Amorsolo apart from his contemporaries.

Despite his exposure to Western influences, Amorsolo retained his Filipino consciousness. He was
drawn more towards the gentle rolling hills and verdant rice fields of the Philippines rather than the
cosmopolitan world of Europe’s proud cities. Even his illustrations of Spanish women were drawn with
slender physiques, narrower hips, and smaller breasts more typical of Filipinas rather than full bodied
Caucasian women.

After his stint in Madrid, Amorsolo came home to the Philippines ready to apply what he learned. His
bright sunlit rural landscapes were a stark departure from the elegantly dark European style that was
practiced during the time. American servicemen, officials, and businessmen sought out his paintings to
bring home to the States as a token of remembrance for their stay in the Philippines. Amorsolo made
his mark and carved a niche for himself in the local art scene. Demand for his chosen genre reached a
high point.

Amorsolo’s first wife passed away in 1931 leaving him with six children. He had six more children by a
common-law wife. In 1935, he married Maria del Carmen who gave him eight more children.
Fortunately, his reputation was growing as fast as his brood and his work was more than enough to
provide for his rather large family.

The War Years

Just as his career was reaching its peak the Philippines found itself in the midst of the second World
War. The artist and his family lived in the middle of the Japanese-occupied city of Manila and were not
spared from the grim realities of war. Amorsolo rented another house near Raon Street where the
women and children stayed while the men occupied the Azcarraga residence during the daytime which
was near a Japanese garrison. Amorsolo did not let the war stop him from painting but his work took a
dramatic turn.

Difficult times during the war took its toll on the artist and his family. Amorsolo’s customer base
dissipated in the face of the tough economic situation. Acquiring painting materials was a challenge.
More importantly, Amorsolo was deprived of his frequent sojourns to the rural areas of Marikina,
Antipolo, and other locales in the outskirts of Manila where he painted his popular landscapes. Not
having access to his traditional settings, his paintings took on a darker tone.
During the war, Amorsolo’s younger brother Pablo, an accomplished artist in his own right, was branded
a Japanese sympathizer. He was captured and executed by Filipino guerillas in Antipolo. This personal
tragedy, in addition to the devastation all around him, weighed heavily on the artist.

Depictions of human suffering and tragedy dominated his canvases. The idyllic world within which the
introverted artist chose to confine himself was torn asunder. It was during this time that Amorsolo’s
work truly embodied the artist’s inner self. The paintings were not made in conjunction with a client’s
preferences but were reflections of the conflicting emotions raging within. Amorsolo was deeply
affected as he watched his surroundings ravaged by war. He painted burning edifices and mothers
fleeing the scene with their children in tow. Women’s faces were filled with terror and despair as they
were engulfed by death and destruction in their surroundings. Gone were the ebullient smiles, replaced
by expressions of desolation. Rather than the noontime sun illuminating the main subjects, flames and
embers from the burning ruins became the primary light source casting an eerie ominous glow.

Even during this dark period, Amorsolo chose to portray despair not with an emotional outpouring of
grief. It was very rare that a person in his paintings would be depicted screaming with rage or wailing in
intense displays of emotion. Tragedy was portrayed through subtle means. In one of his more famous
works, a woman is pictured clutching her veil while kneeling in front of her dead son --- apparently a
guerilla soldier killed during a battle. The woman is looking up to the sky with a calm look of sorrow on
her face. The subtle and restrained depiction proved to be a more powerful portrayal as the woman’s
tearless eyes conveyed a more intense form of pain. It communicated to the viewer the deep sense of
loss a mother feels when her child is taken away from her. On the flip side, men were represented not
with expressions of rage but with looks of defiance. In his piece entitled Defensa de Honor, the man
protecting the woman from being raped by a Japanese soldier had a determined but subdued
expression. This was conveyed by the fiery expression in his eyes and the slight but firm downward turn
of the corners of his mouth. Amidst the tragedy of the war, Amorsolo still inserted a hint of hope
personified by the implied resistance of his characters to the occupying Japanese forces. His wartime
paintings are considered among his finest work and were exhibited at Malacanang Palace in 1948.

The artist was roundly criticized for his machine-like efficiency. Furthermore, a blossoming modern art
movement, who considered Amorsolo the de facto leader of the classical realist school, saw him as a
natural target. He never raised his voice nor took up the cudgel in his own defense yet he had no
shortage of defenders who took up the fight. Among his staunchest supporters was Guillermo
Tolentino, the finest sculptor the country ever produced and Amorsolo’s best friend. When asked why he
did not speak up in his own defense, the artist responded with a shrug and said that he had already
matured as an artist. He had nothing left to prove and was comfortable painting what he wished in the
form of expression that he chose. His customers stood by his side and demand for his paintings
remained high.

Women and landscapes

Amorsolo is best known for his illuminated landscapes,[5] 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.[1] He was educated in the classical tradition and aimed "to
achieve his Philippine version of the Greek ideal for the human form."[6] In his paintings of
Filipina women, Amorsolo rejected Western ideals of beauty in favor of Filipino ideals[7] and
was fond of basing the faces of his subjects on members of his family.[8]

"[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[7]

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.[2][3][9] In a typical Amorsolo painting, figures are outlined against a characteristic glow,
and intense light on one part of the canvas highlights nearby details.[3] Philippine sunlight was a
constant feature of Amorsolo's work; he is believed to have painted only one rainy-day scene.[3]

FERNANDO CUETO AMORSOLO (Philippine, b. May 30, 1892 – d. February 26, 1972)

Styles: Impressionism, Luminism, Realism

Subjects: Philippine genre and historical, nudes, society portraits

The paintings of Fernando C. Amorsolo “…overflow with sweetness and optimism,” says art historian
Eric Torres. Amorsolo, Torres asserts, managed to “capture on canvas the vibrant tropical Philippine
sunlight.” A shy man, whose only real genius was in painting, Fernando Amorsolo also helped shape and
stylize the image of the ideal Filipina.

Fernando Amorsolo’s enormous popularity, both during his lifetime and after, resulted from his
luminous and idealized treatment of Philippine genre and landscape subjects. His best-known paintings
feature peasants in colorful costumes, scenes of rice planting and harvesting, genre and society
portraits, and sensual female bathers. Amorsolo’s painterly technique, and his skill in rendering the
figure, is said to have peaked during the era known as his “Golden Period” between 1915 and 1940.
Fernando Amorsolo was born on May 30, 1892 in Paco, Manila to Pedro Amorsolo, a bookkeeper, and
his wife Bonifacia Cueto. One of five brothers, Fernando grew up in Daet, Camarines Norte, until moving
to Manila upon the death of his father. Before he passed away, Amorsolo’s father Pedro had made his
wife promise to give Fernando a proper art education.

The family moved in with his mother’s first cousin, Fabian de la Rosa, a genre painter who had been
trained at Manila’s Escuela de Bellas Artes y Dibujo (School of Fine Arts and Design) and who had also
traveled in Europe. In 1905 Fernando Amorsolo, aged 13, was apprenticed to de la Rosa. The young
man’s first commercial success came when he sold watercolor postcards for 10 centavos each.

In 1908, Amorsolo won the second prize for the painting Levendo Periodico at the Bazar Escolta, a
competition sponsored by the Asociacion Internacional de Artistas. The following year, Amorsolo
enrolled at the Art School of the Liceo de Manila where a genre scene of figures in a garden would earn
him a first prize in his graduation year. In 1909 he began attending the University of the Philippines
School of Fine art, where his uncle Fabian de la Rosa was serving as an instructor. During his university
years Amorsolo supported himself by doing illustration work that appeared in novels and religious
publications. He graduated with honors in 1916 and began a dual career as an art instructor and
commercial artist.

In 1916 Enrique Zobel de Ayala, a Spanish citizen who was a leading businessman in the Philippines,
sponsored Amorsolo to study at the Adademia de San Fernando in Madrid. While in Spain, Amorsolo
became widely exposed to the works of key European modern artists including French Realists,
Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. He also discovered the works of the Spanish luminist Joaquín
Sorolla y Bastida, and the great Baroque master Diego Velasquez, who became the artists he most
greatly admired and emulated. The 7 months that Amorsolo spent in Spain, and the brief visit he made
afterwards to New York, gave him the stylistic tools he needed to transform himself from a provincial
artist to an international figure. “Informed by Western Impressionism,” states art historian Floriana
Capistrano-Baker, “Amorsolo used swift, broken brushwork and thick impasto, with emphasis on
landscapes and daily scenes.”

After returning to Manila, Amorsolo set up a studio and began an enormously productive period. Using
subject matter that he had borrowed from Fabian de la Rosa – scenes of rice planting and harvesting —
he created a series of paintings that captured the popular imagination. His 1922 painting Rice Planting
soon appeared on calendars, posters, and travel brochures. Amorsolo also created powerful images of
Philippine colonial history including “The First Mass in the Philippines.” During the long span of his
career, Amorsolo’s paintings would continue to be reproduced in textbooks, commercial images,
magazines and newspapers, and became the accepted standard for historical imagery.

Amorsolo designed the logo for Ginebra San Miguel (Markang Demonyo) depicting St. Michael
vanquishing the devil. The logo is still in use in its original form today. The owner of the beverage
company, Don Enrique Zobel, who is an ardent patron of the arts, was so impressed by his work that he
offered to send Amorsolo to the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid for further studies with a
generous stipend for himself and his family.

Despite his exposure to Western influences, Fernando Amorsolo retained his Filipino consciousness.
He was drawn more towards the gentle rolling hills and rice fields of the Philippines rather than the
cosmopolitan world of Europe's proud cities. Even his illustrations of Spanish women were drawn
with slender physiques, narrower hips, and smaller breasts more typical of Filipinas rather than full
bodied Caucasian women. One of his most copied paintings is the "Palay Maiden".

National Artist - Fernando Amorsolo. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2018, from
http://ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/culture-profile/national-artists-of-the-
philippines/fernando-amorsolo/

Biography of Fernando Amorsolo. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2018, from

http://www.fernandocamorsolo.com/biography.html