FERNANDO ARMORSOLO

Fernando Cueto Amorsolo is one of the most important artists in the history of painting in
the Philippines.

Amorsolo was a portraitist and painter of rural Philippine landscapes. He is popularly
known for his craftsmanship and mastery in the use of light. Born in Paco, Manila, he earned a degree
from the Liceo de Manila Art School in 1909.

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 Amorsolo ne 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 DonFabin 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 ten centavos 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.

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 andIgnacio
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 thePasion. 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.
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.