Lot description
Fernando Amorsolo (1892 - 1972) Pasay signed and dated 1932 (lower right) oil on wood 11" x 18" (28 cm x 46 cm) Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mrs. Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo confirming the authenticity of this lot Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the family of Miss Frances Rodgers, daughter of Dr. James B. and Mrs. Anna Rodgers, the first Presbyterian missionaries in the Philippines, who had originally arrived in 1894 was a child. Miss Rodgers would become head of the Home Economics Department of Silliman University and would become neighbor and friend to Mrs. Mary M. Bercovitz who would receive it as a gift from Miss Rodger’s estate as she had instructed. A Gift of Love from a Friend Amorsolo Memories Reach Out across Time by Mary M. Bercovitz My husband, Nathaniel Bercovitz, our two-year old daughter Ellen, and I arrived in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Philippines in February of 1958. My husband was to help install a radio transmitter for the United Church of Christ of the Philippines. We were housed on the campus of Silliman University and our neighbor across the street from us was Frances Rodgers. Her parents, Dr. James B and Mrs. Anna Rodgers had come to Manila in April 1894 (when Frances was 6 years old) as the first Presbyterian Missionaries to the Philippines. When we arrived, Frances was head of the Home Economics Department in the College of Liberal Arts of Silliman University. She had started Domestic Science classes there in 1917 which went on to become a full department in 1920. In 1930 it became the Home Economics Department and in 1986 a degree in Nutrition and Dietetics was included. Frances and I quickly became good friends. After all, I had taught Home Economics for one year at a Presbyterian Mission in Kentucky. I had admired the paintings of Philippine scenes which were hanging in her home. There was a large one of local scenes and with Frances’ help, as well as a canvas from a California friend, a local artist agreed to paint a picture for me, even agreeing to move the mountain I could see from my kitchen window so it would overlook the river where women did their laundering! Frances had several very nice paintings, but my favorite was one by Fernando Amorsolo, a lovely pastoral scene of everyday life. It was one which made me want to slow down, breath deeply, and enjoy — and to perhaps imagine myself joining the woman walking in the light next to the water. After Frances’ death in 1983, I received my Fernando Amorsolo painting from those who closed the estate. She had told me that she wanted me to have it because of how much I enjoyed it. I had no idea as to its value and I doubt she did either. I have thought of it as a gift of love from a dear friend. Now in my late 90s, and with poor eyesight, I am parting with it and hoping the person who comes in possession of it finds the same joy as I have had for so many years. About the Painting Amorsolo was one of the first Filipino artists to portray peasants at leisure in art, and many of his scenes crowded along the shore among a scattering of parasols. Often he organized his compositions in such a way that the emphasis was more on the sky than on the people beneath, in which he made numerous studies. His mastery of space and light — the handling especially of emptiness whether at ground level or in the sky — was matched by a delicate mastery of detail and is further enlivened by a charming quasi anecdotal delight in the presentation of groups and figures. The light of the seaside freed Amorsolo’s palette and intensified the vigor of his paint handling. Like his landscapes, the seascapes were completed on the spot during his sojourns. They could belong to a group all their own. By carefully positioning his figures on and around the beach, Amorsolo has created a peaceful and rhythmical composition. At its best, Amorsolo’s art is a paradigm of the realist’s earthy paradise — a society in which people go about their simple lives contented and in a responsive idyllic environment. Miss Frances V. Rodgers, honored in 2018: Eleven names of long-serving faculty and staff of Silliman University who have passed on were unvelied in a solemn ceremony on August 23, 2018 at Silliman Hall. Their names are etched in plates and will be added to the Heritage Builders Wall on the southern lawn. Frances Van V. Rodgers, Founder, Home Economics Department (and Head for 40 years) was one of the eleven so honored. She hasn’t been forgotten.
