{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":22086,"auction_id":23,"set_id":42,"lot_number":"180","artist":"Fernando Amorsolo (1892 - 1972)","title":"Harvest","starting_price":3400000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1932 (lower right)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"12\" x 21\" (30 cm x 53 cm)","property":null,"coa":"Leon Gallery wishes to thank Mrs. Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo for confirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":"Acquired directly from the Artist by Gen. John L. Hines before the end of his tour of service in the Philippines in 1932; and thence by descent to his grandson Major Gen. John Cleland, both of the U.S. Army.","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Two certified American war heroes intersect with one of the most beloved Filipino artists, Fernando Amorsolo in 1932.
\n\nGeneral John L. Hines was one of the American army’s most talented officers in World War I. He would be promoted several ranks in just four short months in the French theater of war.
\n\nPost-war, he would be named Chief of Staff of the United States Army in 1924. After completing his tour of service, he would serve in California and finally in the Philippines, as the head of the Philippine Department.
\n\nThe Philippine Department, which was always commanded by an American general, was tasked to train the Philippine Army and defend the country. Incidentally, Gen. Hines had previously fought in the Philippine-American War in 1898; this was his second tour of duty in the nation.
\n\nHe would serve as the head of the Philippine Department from 1930 to 1932, the year that he acquired the painting, almost certainly as a souvenir before his return to America.
\nThe painting Harvest would pass on to his grandson, Major General John Cleland who lived with Gen. Hines while he was stationed in Manila. Cleland enlisted in the Army during World War II and was in combat against Japanese forces in the Philippines. John was also in combat in the Korean War, where he parachuted into battle, was shot twice in the arm, and was evacuated to the First M.A.S.H. hospital where he met Clara Kehoe, an Army nurse in the M.A.S.H. John and Clara later married when they were both transferred from Korea to Walter Reed Hospital. John also was in combat in the Vietnam war and ultimately\nGen. John L. Hines, commander of the Philippine Department, 1930-1932\nretired as a Major General. A bridge in Melbourne FL was named after him.
\n\nGeneral Hines would pass in 1968, after a long and eminent career. After his retirement upon his return from the Philippines, he would be promoted to the rank of full (or 4-star) general.\n
\nPost-humously, he would be honored by the United States Postal Service in 2000 by being part of the series of Distinguished Soldiers stamps.
\n\nIn the late 1920s, Fernando Amorsolo was gaining the recognition he deserved. He would win first prize for landscape and general painting at the Manila Carnival Commercial and Industrial Fair of 1927 and would begin to design covers for the Philippine Education magazine which would make him famous and his work instantly recognizable the following year. By 1931, he would exhibit Conversion of the Filipinos at the Philippine Pavilion of the Paris Exposition and would receive a commission to do the murals of the Metropolitan Theater which he would spend a year completing in 1933.\n
\nThe work at hand comes from this fertile period of his artistic career and is therefore highly prized. It features the familiar tandem of ‘God and country’ that would resonate with an American officer. A stone church is a familiar but steadfast presence in the background. Green fields, azure skies envelop the land, on which a contented farmer takes home his harvest, atop a carabao drawing a sled filled with grain. As the families work the fields, one can almost hear the whisper of bamboo trees rustling in the wind. It is a peaceful vista that would have been the apt remembrance of a territory that the two generals would protect dutifully.","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":"
Fernando Amorsolo (1892 - 1972) Harvest signed and dated 1932 (lower right) oil on canvas 12\" x 21\" (30 cm x 53 cm)