PROPERTY FROM THE J. ANTONIO ARANETA COLLECTION

Under the Mango Tree
signed and dated 1963 (lower right)
oil on canvas
12” x 16” (30 cm x 41 cm)

Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist by J. Antonio Araneta

Leon Gallery wishes to thank Mrs. Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo for confirming the authenticity of this lot

In the 1930s, American residents and visitors purchased Amorsolo’s paintings off the countryside and took them home to th United States. Three decades after the Commonwealth era, in the mid-sixties, landscape themes continued to be popular with Filipinos.

In the 1960s, Amorsolo consistently responded to the outdoor milieu by letting loose his brush work and emboldening hispalette. Amorsolo quietly, yet defiantly, stood his ground against the waves of modernism in art.

The unpolluted landscape of the countryside — the drama of the land and the simple pursuits of the people — evokes a vastarray of personal associations for the viewer. Amorsolo’s strokes are highly deft, especially in rendering the various gradationsof color from the blues and greens of the distant hill to the light blues in the plein air sky. To quote the master’s daughter Sylvia Amorsolo Lazo: “This scene could be in... Marilao, or Sta Maria or Bocaue in Bulacan province, as these are the placeshe frequented, spending time working on the spot...”

Four and a half decades after Amorsolo’s death, his paintings continue to be exalted.