Fernando Amorsolos Biography

Formative years
Fernando Amorsolo was born on May 30, 1892 in the Paco neighborhood, when Manila was still
under Spanish sovereignty, to Pedro Amorsolo, a book keeper, and Bonifacia Cueto. Amorsolo
spent his childhood in Daet, Camarines Norte, where he studied in a public school and was
tutored at home in Spanish language reading and writing. After his father's death, Amorsolo and
his family moved to Manila to live with Don Fabin de la Rosa, his mother's cousin and a
Philippine painter. At the age of 13, Amorsolo became an apprentice to De la Rosa, who would
eventually become the advocate and guide to Amorsolo's painting career. During this time,
Amorsolo's mother embroidered to earn money, while Amorsolo helped by selling water color
postcards to a local bookstore for tencentavos each. Amorsolo's brother, Pablo Amorsolo, was
also a painter. Amorsolo's first success as a young painter came in 1908, when his
painting Leyendo el peridico took second place at the Bazar Escolta, a contest organized by
the Asociacion Internacional de Artistas. Between 1909 and 1914, Amorsolo enrolled at the Art
School of the Liceo de Manila, where he earned honors for his paintings and drawings.

Antipolo by Fernando Amorsolo, depicting Filipinos celebrating a town fiesta.

After graduating from the Liceo, he entered the University of the Philippines' School of Fine
Arts, where De la Rosa worked at the time. During college, Fernando Amorsolo's primary
influences were the Spanish people court painter Diego Velzquez, John Singer Sargent, Anders
Zorn, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, but mostly his contemporary Spanish

masters Joaqun Sorolla Bastida and Ignacio Zuloaga. Amorsolo's most notable work as a student
at the Liceo was his painting of a young man and a young woman in a garden, which won him
the first prize in the art school exhibition during his graduation year.To make money during
school, Amorsolo joined competitions and did illustrations for various Philippine publications,
including Severino Reyes first novel in Tagalog language, Parusa ng Diyos ("Punishment of
God"), Iigo Ed. Regalado's Madaling Araw ("Dawn"), as well as illustrations for editions of
the Pasion. Amorsolo graduated with medals from the University of the Philippines in 1914.
After graduating from the University of the Philippines, Amorsolo worked as a draftsman for the
Bureau of Public Works, as a chief artist at the Pacific Commercial Company, and as a part-time
instructor at the University of the Philippines (where he would work for 38 years). After three
years as an instructor and commercial artist, Amorsolo was given a grant to study at
the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, Spain by Filipino businessman Enrique Zobel de
Ayala. During his seven months in Spain, Amorsolo sketched at museums and along the streets
of Madrid, experimenting with the use of light and color.Through De Ayala's grant, Amorsolo
was also able to visit New York City, where he encountered postwar impressionism and cubism,
which would be major influences on his work.
Amorsolo set up his own studio upon his return to Manila and painted prodigiously during the
1920s and the 1930s. His "Rice Planting" (1922), which appeared on posters and tourist
brochures, became one of the most popular images of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
Beginning in the 1930s, Amorsolo's work was exhibited widely both in the Philippines and
abroad. His bright,optimistic, pastoral images set the tone for Philippine painting before World
War II . Except for his darker World War II-era paintings, Amorsolo painted quiet and peaceful
scenes throughout his career.
Amorsolo was sought after by influential Filipinos including Luis Araneta, Antonio
Araneta and Jorge B. Vargas. Amorsolo also became the favourite Philippine artist of United
States officials and visitors to the country. Due to his popularity, Amorsolo had to resort to
photographing his works and pasted and mounted them in an album. Prospective patrons could
then choose from this catalogue of his works. Amorsolo did not create exact replicas of his
trademark themes; he recreated the paintings by varying some elements.
His works later appeared on the cover and pages of children textbooks, in novels, in commercial
designs, in cartoons and illustrations for the Philippine publications such The
Independent, Philippine Magazine, Telembang, El Renacimiento Filipino, and Excelsior. He was
the director of the University of the Philippine's College of Fine Arts from 1938 to 1952.
During the 1950s until his death in 1972, Amorsolo averaged to finishing 10 paintings a month.
However, during his later years, diabetes, cataracts, arthritis, headaches, dizziness and the death
of two sons affected the execution of his works. Amorsolo underwent a cataract operation when
he was 70 years old, a surgery that did not impede him from drawing and painting. Two months

after being confined at the St. Luke's Hospital in Manila, Amorsolo died of heart failure at the
age of 79 on April 24, 1972 .
Four days after his death, Amorsolo was honoured as the first National Artist in Painting at
the Cultural Center of the Philippines by then President Ferdinand Marcos.
Amorsolo was a close friend of the Philippine sculptor Guillermo Tolentino, the creator of
the Caloocan City monument to the patriot Andrs Bonifacio.
Marriage and Family[edit]
During his lifetime, Amorsolo was married twice and had 20 children. In 1916, he married Salud
Tolentino Jorge, with whom he had six children. Amorsolos first wife passed away in 1931
leaving him with six children. He had six more children by a common-law wife, named Virginia
Guevarra Santos. Amorsolo have three children with her namely Manuel (followed in his father's
footstep, with a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines), Jorge and Norma
when he met his second wife. Subsequently, Virginia found an engagement ring in one of
Amorsolo's drawers; she knew about Maria,that prompted her to leave his house with her three
children. In 1935, he married Maria del Carmen who gave him eight more children. Among her
daughters are Sylvia Amorsolo Lazo and Luz. But as Maria was giving birth with his children,
Virginia had three more children with Amorsolo. Fortunately, his reputation was growing as fast
as his brood and his work was more than enough to provide for his rather large family. Six of
Amorsolo's children became artists themselves.

Amorsolos Style of Painting

Women and landscapes
Amorsolo is best known for his illuminated landscapes, which often portrayed traditional
Filipino customs, culture, fiestas and occupations. His pastoral works presented "an imagined
sense of nationhood in counterpoint to American colonial rule" and were important to the
formation of Filipino national identity.
Amorsolo was educated in the classical tradition and aimed "to achieve his Philippine version of
the Greek ideal for the human form." In his paintings of Filipina women, Amorsolo rejected
Western ideals of beauty in favor of Filipino ideals and was fond of basing the faces of his
subjects on members of his family.He said that the women he painted should have
"a rounded face, not of the oval type often presented to us in newspapers and magazine
illustrations. The eyes should be exceptionally lively, not the dreamy, sleepy type that
characterizes the Mongolian. The nose should be of the blunt form but firm and strongly marked.
... So the ideal Filipina beauty should not necessarily be white complexioned, nor of the dark
brown color of the typical Malayan, but of the clear skin or fresh colored type which we often
witness when we met a blushing girl."
Amorsolo used natural light in his paintings and developed the backlighting technique, which
became his artistic trademark and his greatest contribution to Philippine painting. In a typical
Amorsolo painting, figures are outlined against a characteristic glow, and intense light on one
part of the canvas highlights nearby details. Philippine sunlight was a constant feature of
Amorsolo's work; he is believed to have painted only one rainy-day scene.
Sketches
Amorsolo was an incessant sketch artist, often drawing sketches at his home, at Luneta Park, and
in the countryside. He drew the people he saw around him, from farmers to city-dwellers coping
with the Japanese occupation. Amorsolo's impressionistic tendencies, which may be seen in his
paintings as well, were at their height in his sketches. His figures were not completely finished
but were mere "suggestions" of the image.
Historical paintings and portraits
Amorsolo also painted a series of historical paintings on pre-Colonial and Spanish Colonization
events. Amorsolo's Making of the Philippine Flag, in particular, was widely reproduced. His The
First Baptism in the Philippines required numerous detailed sketches and colored studies of its
elements. These diverse elements were meticulously and carefully set by the artist before being
transferred to the final canvas. For his pre-colonial and 16th-century depiction of the Philippines,
Amorsolo referred to the written accounts of Antonio Pigafetta, other available reading materials,

and visual sources He consulted with the Philippine scholars of the time, H. Pardo de Tavera
and Epifanio de los Santos.
Amorsolo also painted oil portraits of Presidents like General Emilio Aguinaldo, and other
prominent individuals such as Don Alfredo Jacb and Doa Pura Garchitorena Toral of
Camarines Sur. He also painted the wedding picture of Don Mariano Garchitorena and Doa
Caridad Pamintuan of Pampanga.
He also did a portrait of American Senator Warren Grant Magnuson (19051989), of
the Democratic Party from Washington, whom the Warren G. Magnuson Health Sciences
Building at the University of Washington, and the Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center at
the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland are named after.

Detail from Fernando Amorsolo's 1945Defence of a Filipina Woman's Honour, which is

representative of Amorsolo's World War II-era paintings. Here, a Filipino man defends a woman,
who is either his wife or daughter, from being raped by an unseen Japanese soldier. Note the
Japanese military cap at the man's foot
World War II-era works
After the onset of World War II, Amorsolo's typical pastoral scenes were replaced by the
depictions of a war-torn nation. During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World
War II, Amorsolo spent his days at his home near the Japanese garrison, where he sketched war
scenes from the house's windows or rooftop.
During the war, he documented the destruction of many landmarks in Manila and the pain,
tragedy and death experienced by Filipino people, with his subjects including "women mourning
their dead husbands, files of people with pushcarts and makeshift bags leaving a dark burning
city tinged with red from fire and blood." Amorsolo frequently portrayed the lives and suffering
of Filipina women during World War II. Other World War II-era paintings by Amorsolo include a
portrait in absentia of General Douglas MacArthur as well as self-portraits and paintings of
Japanese occupation soldiers. In 1948, Amorsolo's wartime paintings were exhibited at
the Malacaang Presidential Palace.

Criticisms about Fernando Amorsolos works

Amorsolo's supporters consider his portrayals of the countryside as "the true reflections of the
Filipino Soul."
Amorsolo has been accused, however, of succumbing to commercialism and merely producing
souvenir paintings for American soldiers. Critic Francisco Arcellana wrote in 1948 that
Amorsolo's paintings "have nothing to say" and that they were not hard to understand because
"there is nothing to understand."Critics have criticized Amorsolo's portraits of Philippine
Commonwealth personalities, his large, mid-career anecdotal works, and his large historical
paintings. Of the latter, critics have said that his "artistic temperament was simply not suited to
generating the sense of dramatic tension necessary for such works."
Another critic, however, while noting that most of Amorsolo's estimated ten thousand works
were not worthy of his talent, argues that Amorsolo's oeuvre should nonetheless judge by his best
works instead of his worst. Amorsolo's small landscapes, especially those of his early career,
have been judged as his best works, "hold[ing] well together plastically." Amorsolo may "be
considered a master of the Philippine landscape as landscape, even
outranking Luna and Hidalgo who also did some Philippine landscapes of the same
measurements."

Famous works of Amorsolo-Paintings (from earliest to latest)

Afternoon Meal of the Workers (Noonday Meal of the Rice Workers) (1939)
Assassination of Governor Bustamante
Bataan
The Bombing of the Intendencia (1942)
The Building of Intramuros
Burning of the Idol
The Burning of Manila (1946)
El Ciego (1928)
The Conversion of the Filipinos (1931)
Corner of Hell
Dalagang Bukid (1936)
Defense of a Filipina Woman's Honor (1945)
La destruccion de Manila por los salvajes japoneses (The Destruction of Manila by the
Savage Japanese)
Early Filipino State Wedding
Early Sulu Wedding
The Explosion (1944)
The First Baptism in the Philippines
The First Mass in the Philippines
Fruit Gatherer (1950)
Fruit Pickers Harvesting Under The Mango Tree (1939)
Maiden in a Stream (1921)
Making of the Philippine Flag
The Mestiza (1943)
My Wife, Salud (1920)
One Casualty
Our Lady of Light (1950)
Planting Rice (1946)
Princess Urduja
The Rape of Manila (1942)
Rice Planting (1922)
Sale of Panay
Sikatuna
Sunday Morning Going To Town (1958)
US Senator Warren Magnuson Oil Portrait (1958)
Traders
El Violinista (The Violinist)