{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":3534,"auction_id":6,"set_id":8,"lot_number":"135","artist":"Fernando Amorsolo (1892 - 1972)","title":"Dolmen de Grandmont (Languedoc)","starting_price":300000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated Marzo 1910 (lower left)","medium":"watercolor on paper","size":"7 3/4\" x 10 1/2\" (20 cm x 27 cm)","property":null,"coa":"Accompanied by a certificate issued by Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo confirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":"Private Collection, Manila","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"A 1910 AMORSOLO:\nOne of the Earliest Documented \nWorks of the First National Artist<br /><br />This piece, Dolmen de Grandmont (Languedoc), is one of the earliest documented works by Fernando Amorsolo. Dated March 1910, the maestro created this watercolor painting when he was only 17 years old (he would turn 18 by May 30 of that year). It depicts the megalithic tomb of Dolmen de Grandmont (also called Dolmen de Coste-Rouge) in the Soumont commune, He?rault department, Occitania region, in southern France.<br /><br /> Amorsolo worked on this piece in the first year of his fine arts study at the University of the Philippines (he entered UP on June 18, 1909). The work is based on a beautifully illustrated engraving from the 1865 publication \"La France monumentale et picturesque\" by the Swiss archaeologist Gustav Karl Freiherr von Bonstetten, alias Baron A. de Bonstetten (1816 – 1892).<br /><br /> By the end of the academic year, Amorsolo received numerous medals as \"tokens of highest excellence\" in anatomy, drawing from life in oils, advanced landscape, and drawing from life in charcoal. Thus, Dolmen de Grandmont is a testament to the young Amorsolo's flowering prowess, which would reach even greater heights in the decades to come.<br /><br /> Dominador Castan?eda, one of Amorsolo's closest friends, remarked the following about his peer in his book Art in the Philippines (1964): \"He lent attentive ears to his professor's lectures and supplemented his studies through reading books and art magazines. He studied closely the paintings of the masters, the faithful reproduction...made possible by the development and improvement of color process in printing. Magazines like Spain's La Esfera,<br /><br />      England's International Studio, America's The Studio, and other publications, all bearing very good full-color reproductions of both European and American works, found their way to the Philippines.<br /><br /> \"Via this medium, works of old as well as new artists, like Sorolla, Zuloaga, Anders Zorn, Manet, Monet, Corot, Millet, Renoir, Gauguin, George Inness, James McNeil Whistler, John Singer Sargent, and the British Gainsborough, Turner, Constable, and others, became easily accessible.\" Dolmen de Grandmont, one of the most famous dolmens in the world, is located within the 12th-century Saint- Michel de Grandmont Priory, a former monastery of the Order of Grandmont, among the strictest and most austere religious orders of the Middle Ages, founded by the hermit Saint Stephen of Muret, towards the end of the 11th century. The Priory is among the best-preserved of the 160 Grandmontine monasteries.<br /><br /> The site of the Priory has been inhabited by humans since the Neolithic Period, as evidenced by the existence of the dolmen, which was built around 2500 BCE. Its name means \"red coast,\" owing to the color of its tumulus. Popularly called \"Grotte aux Fe?es,\" the dolmen is world- famous for its unique mushroom-shaped structure and arched opening resembling a medieval bakery stove. According to local legend, the Grandmontine monks used the dolmen to provide medical care for leprosy patients.<br /><br /> Dolmen de Grandmont was declared a Monument historique (historic monument) in 1887, one of the firsts in the Occitania region. (A.M.)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":360000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":360000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":420480,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":3788,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/6/8/lot/135.jpg","isFeatured":1},{"id":3790,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/6/8/lot/135a.jpg","isFeatured":0}]},"increment":[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":134,"next":136,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}