{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":1780,"auction_id":4,"set_id":5,"lot_number":"62","artist":"Carlos V. Francisco (1912–1969)","title":"Boy of Angono","starting_price":5000000,"signed_dated":"signed (lower right)<br /> ca. 1933 - 1939","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"30” x 23” (76 cm x 58 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"\nAcquired directly from the artist by Juan Arellano\nOscar Arellano<br />\nMa. Margarita Arellano Ramos, thence by descen","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"THE BOY OF ANGONO<br /> \nBotong Francisco, Painter of the <br /> \nFilipino Home Town<br /> \nby LISA GUERRERO NAKPIL<br /><br />\nBefore the ascension of Carlos “Botong” V. Francisco \nas the maker and molder of the heroic, noble \nFilipino, he was first the chronicler of the Filipino \nhome town and its many lovable characters.<br /><br /><br />\nANGONO<br /><br />\nHe was always, first and foremost, after all the most \npoetic inhabitant of that idealized world. Rafael Ma. \nGuerrero in his companion citation for Francisco’s \nNational Artist Award, the second to be given in the \ncountry, describes his origins in Angono, which lay \n“some 40 kilometers east of Manila, nestled between \nthe northern tip of Laguna de Bay and the rolling \nfoothills of Rizal. By any standards, Angono is a small \ntown, its population of 4,000, meager in 1973, a once \nsleeping fishing village that today bears telltale signs \nof Greater Manila’s encroaching urban explosion.”<br /><br />\nBotong captured “the limpid rhythm of life in this coastal \ntown”, to be discovered over and over by succeeding \ngenerations “dreaming of forgotten folkways and \nsimpler pleasures… for Botong himself once lived in \nAngono, fished in its waters and camped out on its \nhills. Mirrored in his works is a kindred nostalgia for a \nvanished grace, the untutored ease of a people raised \non the bounty of the land and the sea; for such is the \nlegacy of the painter who, like them, was himself a \ndreamer of the native dream.<br /><br /><br />BOTONG<br /><br />\nThe citation continues, “Among the townsfolk of \nAngono, he was simply known as “Botong”, a monicker \nhe acquired early in life after an equally dark-skinned \nCainta character noted in the provincial grapevine of \nthe Rizal towns by that appellation. Botong’s full name, \nhowever, was Carlos Villaluz Francisco and later in life, \nwhenever art patrons and friends from Manila would \ninquire after him as such, they would be met with stares \nby the Angono residents. Moreover to his town mates \nhe was known better for his prowess at basketball — a \ngame he enjoyed playing as often as he could — than \nfor his skill with his paintbrush.<br /><br />\n“As the old adage goes, you can take the boy out of the \ncountry, but you can’t take the country out of the boy, \nBotong’s life is impossible to relate apart from the milieu \nof his hometown; for Angono was as much a part and \nparcel of the man as his memory is now an enshrined \nsegment of the town lore,” wrote Guerrero.<br /><br />\n“His father was an ex-seminarian, a degree holder of \nhumanities who, for some private reason, decided to \nsettle in this idyllic fishing village to work her on the manufacture of local wine, eventually marrying a young \nAngono woman. Botong was five when his father died, \nan eventuality which strained the family’s circumstances. \nStill, Botong was given a proper education; an \nanachronism in pre-war Angono for their boys learned \nto fish at the side of their fathers and lived from the rich \nyield of the lake.<br /><br />\n“Even as a child, he was wont to draw and in time this \ninclination led Botong to enrol, upon his graduation from \nRizal High School, at the University of the Philippines \nSchool of Fine Arts where he was a student from 1930 to \n1935. This period of studies marked his first protracted \nabsence from his beloved Angono.”<br /><br /><br />\nTHE BOY OF ANGONO<br /><br />\nSignificantly, in his youth, Botong was among just seven \nboys from his hometown who went to school. And \nthere are traces of these boys in Botong’s paintings of \nthe period : sleeping siestas on tall trees, joining in the \ntown’s colorful proceedings, its fiestas, and pilgrimages. \nThe boys appear in cameos, catching their 40-winks in \nrough-hewn buckets, borne along the various parades, \nat other times, pretend-playing with the town band, its \n“Banda Uno” put together by Angono’s other favorite \nson, musician Lucio San Pedro and Botong’s cousin. \nThey provide playful counterpoint to the lyrical renditions \nof the grownups at work and at play and are to be \nfound in the earliest of Botong’s works, “Siesta” (1933) \nand “Pastoral (1933); and also “Pista sa Nayon” (1947) \n“Pilgrimage to Antipolo” (1959) and “Banda Angono” \n(1959). Botong’s world of Angono is actually seen (and \nappreciated) through the eyes of these innocent lads.<br /><br />\nSalvador Juban, his long-time protegé and artist \nassistant, would often further recall, Botong always \npainted from life and the things he knew.<br /><br /> \nThe work at hand, The Boy of Angono, depicts a \nyoungster wearing the wide-brimmed straw hat \ndepicted in all of Botong’s lively scenes. Here the \nboy sits, eyes slightly downcast, carrying a long stick \n(patpat) and sitting beside an loosely woven fish basket \nto net the lake's dalag (fish) which could be easily \ntrapped in the straw mouth.<br /><br /><br />AN INTERSECTION WITH JUAN ARELLANO\n<br /><br />\nBotong Francisco’s artistic trajectory would intersect \nwith Victorio Edades who would mastermind the creation \nof a series of important murals for the established \narchitect Juan Nakpil. All three played various parts at \nthe University of Sto. Tomas; Edades was in fact, head \nof the College of Architecture and Fine Arts. Nakpil and \nFrancisco were professors in various capacities.<br /><br />\nIn 1936, Botong with Edades and Galo Ocampo, would \ncreate the first of his career-defining murals, the powerful \nvision titled “Rising Philippines”, commissioned by Arch. \nNakpil for the Capitol film palace owned by the Rufino \nfamily.<br /><br />\nArellano and Nakpil both belonged to the same elite \narchitectural and artistic circle and would become \npatrons of the Botong Francisco, who was himself rising \nin both capacity and stature.","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":7000000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":7000000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":8411200,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":1995,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/4/5/lot/62.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":61,"next":63,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}