Lot description
Fernando Amorsolo (1892 - 1972) Tinikling Feast signed and dated 1961 (lower right) oil on canvas 30" x 40" (76 cm x 102 cm) Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mrs. Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo confirming the authenticity of this lot Fernando Amorsolo was born on practically the last day of May in 1892. It would be entirely fitting that the man who celebrated an eternal summer in his works would be born in that sunlit month. His family would move from Paco, Manila to Daet, Camarines Norte by Christmas of that year and would stay there until his father’s passing 11 years later. Almost certainly, Amorsolo’s love for the great Philippine outdoors first took root in those pastoral years, a few towns away from the majestic Mayon Volcano, which would grace many of his paintings, amid the rice fields and fruit trees of Bicol. His mother, Bonifacia Cueto, would return to the capital after two years, exhausted from the struggles of having to raise six boys single-handedly. They would take refuge with the now- prosperous Fabian de la Rosa.(Bonifacia supposedly would send her cousin the young Fernando’s drawings to convince him to take him on.) Fabian would indeed take both of his nephews — chiefly Fernando and his brother Pablo — under his wing, making them first his manchadors, and then his able apprentices. (Fernando would thus formally begin under De la Rosa’s tutelage at just 13.) It was from him that the Amorsolo siblings would learn the storied tradition of being journeymen and the superb techniques that would only sharpen the brother’s talents. While De la Rosa’s paintings would embody the 20th-century Filipino identity, in all a brand-new country, idealized under the new colonial masters. There would still be something of the Old World about them, expressed in Italianate overcast skies and dark forests. It would be, however, Fernando Amorsolo who would make his own paintings of a sun-dappled paradise famous across the country. In the work at hand, Tinikling Feast, the maestro has pulled out all the stops to create a joyous Filipino fiesta like no other, putting together a rare and record number symbols of prosperity and bounty : There is the welcome dance of the tinikling, but there is also a lechon, roasting on a slow spit beside a waiting rice bowl; a boat on the riverbank is groaning with bananas and vegetables; there are baskets of ripe mangos, too; a strong carabao, harvest stacks of rice; musicians and a throng of happy guests, including many of Amorsolo’s best loved characters, women with parasols, farmers and their wives, as well as musicians and dancers. This work was a personal favorite of its collector, as it symbolized the welcoming spirit of plenty of a Filipino community; Edilberto “Ed” V. Pozon, would hang it in his personal study. Mr. Pozon was an international banker with Wells Fargo (1967- 1969) in San Francisco, California; Citibank (1969-1986) in the cosmopolitan cities of New York, Jakarta, Singapore, and HongKong. Afterwards, he was with the Allied Group, HongKong (1986-1991), and founded Broadland Properties in Arizona, USA (1992 - 2008.) Mr. Pozon was a dynamic, engaging, beloved father and grandfather; a supportive, compassionate spouse. He was also a silent, anonymous patron to Catholic orphanages and many more charities. He was a passionate collector of Chinese and Filipino antiques and art. His Amorsolo collection began when he lived and worked in HongKong in the 80’s.
