{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":760,"auction_id":2,"set_id":2,"lot_number":"670","artist":"Betsy Westendorp (1927 - 2022)","title":"Orchids","starting_price":800000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1980 (lower right)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"39 1/2” x 32” (100 cm x 81 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Betsy Westendorp was a portraitist and painter celebrated for her exquisite depictions of flowers and sunsets. During her childhood, her formal education was limited to “educación general,” which did not prepare women for a particular profession. Even so, this did not trouble her, as she firmly believed she had already found her life’s true calling.<br /><br />At a young age, Westendorp realized her true passion lay in drawing and painting. Her primary interest was in capturing the likenesses of people, with her initial subjects being her own family members, particularly her two sisters. Her career as a portrait artist in the Philippines took root one morning in 1958, when she met a beautiful lady during a gathering at Don Enrique Zobel’s residence. Westendorp asked if she would be willing to sit as a subject, and the lady graciously agreed. This portrait garnered the admiration of their acquaintances, marking the inception of Westendorp’s reputation in Manila’s elite social circles as a premier portraitist.<br /><br /> Nevertheless, Westendorp’s most revered theme was flowers, with the orchid holding a special place in her heart, to the extent that it became synonymous with her name. Her journey into painting orchids started in a Madrid greenhouse. “At the beginning, I had to paint on location,” she remarked, “so I can get in touch with the flowers.”<br /><br />As for her Atmosferografias, the moniker for her sunset paintings, they began way back in the fifties. Each evening at five o’clock, from their Ermita apartment, she and her husband would drive to what was then called Dewey Boulevard to watch the sunset at Manila Bay. There, they would savor the famous view until the enveloping darkness shrouded the waning daylight. For Westendorp, the Philippine sunset was incomparable in its beauty (Isabella Romarate)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":1600000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":1600000,"userBid":5933,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":1922560,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":780,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/2/2/lot/670.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[900000,1000000,1100000,1200000,1300000,1400000,1500000,1600000,1700000,1800000,1900000,2000000,2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":669,"next":671,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}