{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":61018,"auction_id":206,"set_id":239,"lot_number":"132","artist":"Fernando Amorsolo (1892 - 1972)","title":"Untitled","starting_price":40000,"signed_dated":null,"medium":"print","size":"5 1/4” x 8 1/4” (13 cm x 21 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"A nearly ubiquitous in every corner of Philippine art history, it is a fact often overlooked that Fernando Amorsolo’s advertising career thrived as much as his landscape and portraiture works. He worked as a draftsman for the Bureau of Public Works, currently known as the Department of Public Works and Highways, and also served as the Chief Artist for the Pacific Commercial Company, while simultaneously working as a part-time instructor at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts. <br/><br/>“His early commercial output gives us a peek at Amorsolo’s mastery of the art of illustration,” Edwin A. Martinez writes in Amorsolo’s Works: Commercial Illustrations.<br/><br/> Indeed, this particular work gives us a rare glimpse into Amorsolo’s work during his time with the Pacific Commercial Company. A stark contrast from his more famous depictions of sunlit pastoral scenes, Amorsolo’s pen-and-ink work depicts a more macabre vision: the Grim Reaper with its hand guiding the bucketful of water up to the mouths of drinking children. In the newspaper, the text below the photo roughly translates to: “From the fetid, stagnant, and polluted wells comes disgusting death to reap the death of innocent children.”<br/><br/> An approximation of the text reveals that this is an ad for a bomba de mano or a hand pump. In particular, the text emphasizes the importance of keeping the children safe from the bacteria and microbes that come from exposed, dirty wells. Amorsolo actualizes this warning by personifying the terror of death as the Grim Reaper looming over the children. Their parents are naive, even unaware, of the danger they place their children in.<br/><br/> Amorsolo’s advertising career extends far past the pieces preserved by collectors and families. Indeed, his most popular one is a logo almost everyone is certain to have seen themselves: that of Ginebra San Miguel. Yes, it was Amorsolo who illustrated St. Michael the Archangel battling a vanquished demon, the image that graces the gin’s logo up to this day.<br/><br/> Amorsolo’s creation of the logo in 1917 directly helped him propel his career forward. It was the Ayalas who commissioned the artist to redesign their logo, and their patriarch and patron of the arts, Enrique Zóbel de Ayala, was so impressed by his work that he offered him the chance to study at the Academia de San Francisco in Madrid. The rest, as they say, is history. (Hannah Andrea Valiente)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":0,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":0,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":34,"lot_status":"UNSOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":0,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":67434,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/206/239/lot/132.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[25000,30000,35000,40000,45000,50000,55000,60000,70000,80000,90000,100000,110000,120000,130000,140000,150000,160000,170000,180000,190000,200000,220000,240000,260000,280000,300000,320000,340000,360000,380000,400000,450000,500000,550000,600000,650000,700000,750000,800000,900000,1000000,1100000,1200000,1300000,1400000,1500000,1600000,1700000,1800000,1900000,2000000,2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":131,"next":133,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}