Under The Mango Tree
signed and dated 1957 (lower right)
oil on canvas
22" x 30" (56 cm x 76 cm)


PROVENANCEPrivate collection, USA



An Amorsolo Feast In Praise of the Filipino FamilyIn 1952, following his 14-year stint as the director of the UP School of Fine Arts, Fernando Amorsolo resigned from the post to dedicate his full time to painting. He succeeded his uncle and famed painter Fabian de la Rosa who had mentored the artist and his brother Pablo (himself an acclaimed painter in his own right) at the turn of the century. Through him, the then-young artist enjoyed one of the best art education possible with the accomplished genre painter. The influence of de la Rosa is evident in Amorsolo’s 1957 Under the Mango Tree. While De la Rosa’s iconic “Planting Rice” work (done in 1904, one year before the Amorsolos moved in with their uncle) basked in the muted, dusky atmosphere of the late afternoon, Amorsolo’s Under the Mango Tree bathed in the famed Amorsolo sunlight. Gone is the haze of the Philippine landscape; in its place is a lusher, more vibrant countryside, a reprieve from the rapidly modernizing 1950s Philippines. Amorsolo returns again and again to the fields, depicting the scene and its workers with the fervor of a man in love. Growing up in Daet, Camarines Norte whose primary livelihood is rice production, Amorsolo’s romanticism and nostalgia bleed into his works. “The rural scenes that Papa painted were based from the actual day-to-day chores of the simple and poor people that he observed as a young lad until his growing years,” writes his daughter Sylvia Amorsolo Lazo in Amorsolo: Love and Passion. Under the Mango Tree depicts the simple provincial life. A group of farmers tills the land in the background, blurred and almost indistinguishable but what is more pertinent are the four figures in the foreground. A woman holds a child to her lap, watching another girl – a teenager by the looks of her – cook on a pot and a makeshift stove; an old man, perched on a deconstructed cart, watches over. The age-old nursery rhyme sung by children ("Magtanim ay 'di biro / Maghapong nakayuko / 'Di man lang makaupo / 'Di man lang makatayo") seems not to apply here – here, the farmers toil under crystal clear skies and bright but not blinding light. The Amorsolo sunlight – which has captivated the Philippine culturati for years to come – shines in all its brilliance, washing the common folk with an intense nostalgia, a staple of an Amorsolo landscape. The rice cycle pops up frequently in Amorsolo’s oeuvre. Farmers from sunrise to sundown occupy the forefront of his canvas as they work through the back-breaking labor of the planting season. Despite this, his pastoral landscapes show no trace of darkness – they are at their core bright and lively, echoing what Mrs. Sylvia recalled her father saying: “There is always something beautiful in all things around us and nature. So why not recreate God’s creation through [my] canvas?” Even decades later, Amorsolo’s landscapes resonate even further; as modernization rapidly hurtles on, stories of the carefree provincial afternoons draw in wistful wishes and longing for the past. Under the Mango Tree showcases part of Amorsolo’s personal and national identity – it is an idyllic return to the past, a painter preserving the beauty of days yore. (Hannah Valiente)