Market Scene (En Plein-Air)
signed (lower right) ca. 1942
oil on wood
9 1/4” x 13” (23 cm x 33 cm)
Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mrs. Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo confirming the authenticity of this lot
PROVENANCE: Acquired directly from the artist



WRITE UPEARLIEST AMORSOLO MARKET SCENE by LISA GUERRERO NAKPILInscribed by the owner on the reverse: Février 1945. Libération de Manille par la U.S. First Cavalry Division… terminant 3 années d’occupation Japonaise… Fernando Amorsolo me propose de remplacer sur ce tableau le soldat Japonaise par un liberateur Americain. Je n’ai pas accepté. Préférant conserver ce tableau souvenir en version oiginale. February 1945. Liberation of Manila by the U.S. First Cavalry Division… ending 3 years of Japanese occupation… Fernando Amorsolo suggested that he replace the Japanese soldier in this painting with an American liberator. I did not accept. Preferring to keep this souvenir painting in the original version. —R. LAZARD.Fernando Amorsolo was adamant about using his immense powers of painting to catalogue all the ravages of World War II and the Japanese Occupation. His daughter Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo would recall that he clipped every single newspaper headline about the war and from his perch in downtown Manila or in his peregrinations around the city, would keep the faith by painting a scene every day. Sylvia would recall. “He hated being idle but during the War, he believed that it was important and that he needed to record what was happening around him.” The Amorsolo family, she recounts, “lived near Azcarraga before the War, but when the Japanese set up a garrison right across the street from our house, my father wanted to keep all the womenfolk safe; so he hired another house, I think it belonged to Mr. Kraut, in Raon. My mother and all the girls were sent there. Papa and and the boys stayed in that house on Morayta.” “My father had a collection of newspapers of every single day of the War,” she further recalls. It would be an important resource for this avid documentarian. “He used his works to depict the war crimes and the refugee crisis. These are all, unfortunately, still happening to this day in other war zones.” The work at hand is perhaps one of Amorsolo’s first-ever market scenes, created — as one can presume from the size of this treasure — on the spot as he witnessed captured the goings-on. In later years after the War, his market scenes — showing the hurly-burly of the women buying and selling fruits and vegetables — would become a favorite theme. They would evoke the peace and idyllic beauty of Filipino life. By contrast, this particular scene is taut with tension : Amorsolo’s heavy impasto strokes communicate his furious observations. There is the marked contrast of hawkers who must have been pretending that life was as normal as before and the presence of a Japanese kempeitai (military police) looming over them, as he patrolled menacingly. We can also surmise that the scene was drawn early in the war — when food was still not in short supply, and Amorsolo himself had plenty of canvas and paint — most probably in 1942, the first year of the Japanese Occupation. It’s a scene that continues to resonate today. “My father was a quiet man,” said Mrs. Amorsolo-Lazo, “but he was immersed in politics. He was very up to date, very interested in the news. He believed everyone should be.”