{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":56499,"auction_id":110,"set_id":144,"lot_number":"74","artist":"Fernando Amorsolo (1892 - 1972)","title":"Vendors","starting_price":4000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1963 (lower right)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"18” x 24” (46 cm x 61 cm)","property":"PROPERTY FROM THE JOHN OVENSTONE COLLECTION","coa":null,"provenance":"Acquired directly from the artist","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Nostalgia permeates deeply in the works of Fernando Amorsolo. Perhaps the most well-known Filipino artist in his contemporary times and beyond, Amorsolo changed the Philippine art landscape when his vivid sunlit landscapes stood out amongst dreary, gray-lit canvases. With the exception of his war pieces that tackled the Philippines’ plight during the Second World War, his oeuvre consists mostly of sun-drenched countryside scenes. <br /><br /> This particular piece, done in 1963, is a nostalgic trip down memory lane. This decade has been a fruitful year for Amorsolo – the past centuries had proved him an excellent artist, and he continues to reap his rewards. Just a few years from now, he would be honored with the Republic Cultural Heritage Special Award in Painting, the precursor to the National Artist Award, of which Amorsolo would also be posthumously given in 1972. <br /><br /> In this work, Amorsolo portrays a group of five as they traverse along a knee-high field of rice. The sun shines down on them in warm yellow waves. In the distance, on the horizon, stands a perfectly symmetrical volcano. Though Amorsolo was born in Manila, they had relocated to Daet, Camarines Norte when he was only seven months old and stayed until he was eleven. Daet is a considerable distance from Albay, where Mount Mayon is, but it is not a stretch to believe that this is a scene from his past, only with a slight embellishment. <br /><br /> “Idealized agricultural Philippine scenes are the heart of Amorsolo's work,” writer and art historian Jane Allinson once wrote in her essay \"Amorsolo and the American Experience.\" Indeed, Amorsolo’s works are a story born out of his life experiences as much as it is the Philippines’. He came of age during a transitory period of Philippine history – from Spanish to American – and he witnessed the country come to its full glory. <br /><br /> Still, despite the rapid modernization that propelled the Philippines into innovation, Amorsolo continued to cling to the rural atmosphere. Steadfast and stubborn, it made Amorsolo the prime candidate for criticism flung towards the classical realist school. Amorsolo, however, remained quiet. He let his works speak for themselves, and speak they did. His romantic idealism is evident in his oeuvre, and it continues to resonate for years to come. They provide the perfect reprieve from the busy life, a testament that continues to be relevant even decades later. (Hannah Valiente)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":5000000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":5000000,"userBid":5930,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":6008000,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":60285,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/110/144/lot/74.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":73,"next":75,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}