{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":49238,"auction_id":98,"set_id":129,"lot_number":"373","artist":"Betsy Westendorp (1927 - 2022)","title":"Painting #744","starting_price":80000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1994 (lower left)","medium":"oil on canson carton","size":"9 1/2” x 13 3/4” (24 cm x 34 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Galleria Duemila, Inc","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"BETSY WESTENDORP The Perpetual Flourishing of Her Flower Paintings<br /><br />“The flowers die so soon…,” Vincent van Gogh once said. And, as a painter who also loved flowers, Betsy Westendorp might have thought of that as well because she learned to paint them from memory. As per Cid Reyes, author of the catalog Betsy Westendorp: Passages, she cultivated them in her mind, where the flowers remain ever fresh, imperishable, and in perpetual bloom.<br /><br />Westendorp was a well-known portraitist and painter of sunsets, barong-barongs, and her most admired theme, flowers. Among the petaled plants she has painted, the orchid was a particular favorite, to the point that it became synonymous with her name. Even so, she still painted other flowers, such as milflores, sunflowers, water lilies, and birds of paradise, to name a few.<br /><br />In the cited catalog, it is written that whenever Westendorp received flowers, she would paint them. “I used to paint flowers before me,” the artist noted. Her first milflores painting was done in the north of Spain during a summer vacation. Then, inside a greenhouse in Madrid was where she started painting orchids, and later on, she bought lots of books for reference. For her collection of hydrangeas, she bought flowerpots and painted in front of them. In her garden, she also planted sunflowers, and again, captured them on her canvas. “At the beginning, I had to paint on location,” she said, “so I can get in touch with the flowers.” Westendorp befriended flowers and held them dear to her heart and mind, so familiar to her that when she paints, she can recall the features of these flowers at will.<br /><br />The life of Westendorp has been a celebration of her art. For her, art was a source of joy, delight, and happiness, as observed in most of her works. Only a year ago, the beloved artist passed away at the age of 94. (Isabella Romarate)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":155000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":155000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":186248,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":48843,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/98/129/lot/373.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[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":372,"next":374,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}