Lot description
Anita Magsaysay-Ho (1914 - 2012) Girl in a Maria Clara signed and dated 1944 (lower left) oil on masonite board 24” x 18” (61 cm x 46 cm) In the 1930s, Anita Magsaysay-Ho would sharpen her skills at the avant-garde Cranbrook Academy in Michigan, the same college that would later influence the art of Jose Joya and Napoleon Abueva. She also studied at the New York Students’ League under Kenneth Hayes Miller, Will Barnet and Robert Ward Johnson. But before she would make her name as the only female member of the vaunted Thirteen Moderns, she had a sterling foundation in classical, academic art. Ramon N. Villegas would note that Anita would begin painting from the age of nine — and went on to study at the School of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines, under the tutelage of Filipino master painters Fabian de la Rosa, and his nephews Fernando and Pablo Amorsolo, as well as Ireneo Miranda and Vicente Rivera y Mir. Furthermore, she studied at Manila’s School of Design, under Victorio Edades and Enrique Ruiz. It was in New York City where she also met Robert Ho from Hong Kong. They married and moved to China, where Ho’s shipping company, Magsaysay Inc., began. The couple eventually had five children and they moved frequently because of Ho’s work. They lived in Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan. Wherever she lived, Anita had a studio where she could paint. Although she was eventually identified as one of the Thirteen Moderns, in the early 1940s, the influence of her teacher Fernando Amorsolo was still clearly visible, both in terms of subject and technique. Later, her work evolved toward modernism. In the work at hand, Girl in a Maria Clara, Magsaysay-Ho depicts a dolllike tot dressed in a traditional ‘Maria Clara’ ensemble : A lace panuelo (fichu) is draped over the traditional camisa (shirt) with the billowing sleeves of a turn-of-the-century styled traje de mestiza, accented with blue appliqué rendered in an Impressionist manner. A matching azure skirt completes the costume; as do a complete suite of child-sized jewelry : a pearl-studded comb, a tamborin of pierced gold beads, and creolla hoop earrings. The lovely, wide-eyed child holds a painted abanico (fan) for additional flourish. The portrait is an Amorsolo subject, but treated so differently. The brushstrokes are strong, the colors are deftly applied. The technique is intensely alive, but the charm of Filipina beauty shines through. Magsaysay-Ho was to the manor born: her father Ambrosio Magsaysay, an engineer, was uncle to the future Philippine president Ramon. She was descended from Luis Rafael Yangco whose fleet of ships earned him the title of “King of Manila Bay” and she would summer in the home of his refined son, Teodoro who would later be the Philippines’ Resident Commissioner in the United States. She was therefore no stranger to the upper crust and would be asked to create portraits not only of Manila’s society women but also their pampered children.
