{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":61736,"auction_id":209,"set_id":242,"lot_number":"160","artist":"Betsy Westendorp (1927 - 2022)","title":"Flowers","starting_price":600000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1992 (lower left)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"40” x 31 1/2” (100 cm x 80 cm)","property":"PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED COLLECTION","coa":null,"provenance":"Private collection, Manila","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"The conversation about the Philippine art scene is incomplete without talking about the works of Betsy Westendorp. Combining multiple cultures and national identities within her works, Betsy was a Dutch descendant born in Spain just years before a civil war broke out. However, it was her years in the Philippines, brought about by her marriage to Spanish-Filipino executive Antonio Brias, that were perhaps one of the most influential regarding her artistic endeavours. <br><br> Arriving in the Philippines as a young bride in 1951, she charmed Manila’s high society with her beauty and talent, eventually becoming a much sought-after artist for portraits and scenes. Amid her scenery, her flowers are lauded as some of her most iconic pieces. Consciously or not, she had followed in the footsteps of her Dutch artist ancestors, who were the first to cast flowers as the main character of their works in and of themselves, as opposed to supporting characters in a landscape. <br><br> However, where Betsy differed from her ancestors was in her preferred way to present her flowers. In her oeuvre, the flowers are in situ, that is to say, she depicts them in their natural habitat. Her flowers are not plucked and placed in a vase or situated as a centerpiece on a table; instead, they spring straight from the ground or float gently above a pond. <br><br> It would not be an exaggeration to say Betsy approaches her flower paintings the same way she treats her portraits — with careful and utmost respect. “At the beginning, I had to paint on location,” she said in an interview with Cid Reyes, published in Passages: Celebrating the Artistic Journeys of Betsy Westendorp. “It’s like getting to know a person. With flowers, you have to know them also.” <br><br> Her 1992 Flowers portrays a bunch of flowers, still connected to their stems and roots, hovering over a body of water. Betsy’s style of using multitudinous tiny brush strokes and dense daubs creates a rich density of layers that translates into a harmonious environment evocative of wildflowers blooming undisturbed. <br><br> “I like it when something is beautiful and when something has movement,” she further told Cid Reyes. Her Flowers exemplifies both. One could almost feel the soft, gentle breeze flowing through the gaps of the leaves and the clear, still waters that reflect these flowers. Streams of early morning sunlight wash the scene in shades of soft yellow and green, and with this, Betsy creates a visual spectacle that stirs up nostalgia for the days past and optimism for better days to come. (Hannah Andrea Valiente)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":1100000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":1100000,"userBid":34,"isPaid":0,"userId":34,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":25661,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":1321760,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":68630,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/209/242/lot/160.jpg","isFeatured":1},{"id":68710,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/209/242/lot/160a.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":68709,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/209/242/lot/160b.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":68708,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/209/242/lot/160c.jpg","isFeatured":0}]},"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":159,"next":161,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}