17th to Early 20th Century National Fine Arts Collection

This week’s #ArtStrollSunday series focusing on the 17th to early 20th century art from the National Fine Arts Collection features Pablo Amorsolo y Cueto’s “Philippine Charity Sweepstakes” (1938) to commemorate the institutionalization of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office on October 30, 1934.

The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) was created under Philippine Legislature Act No. 4130, approved on October 30, 1934, by then President Manuel Quezon. Since its institutionalization, the PCSO has become an important charity arm of the government to provide funds to promote public health and general welfare. The government had already started raising funds in 1932 through the National Charity Sweepstakes, which supported the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation and the Philippine Tuberculosis Society. Later, with the establishment of the PCSO, the early beneficiaries expanded to include the National Federation of Women’s Clubs, Association de Damas de Filipinas, Gota de Leche, Asilo Para Invalidos de Los Veteranos de la Revolucion, Associate of Manila and the Provinces, Philippine Council of Boy Scouts of America, and Child Welfare Center. Other organizations engaged in charity, health services, and the welfare of indigent Filipinos also benefitted from the institution.  

Pablo Amorsolo’s oil on canvas painting entitled “Philippine Charity Sweepstakes” (1938) depicts the sectors of the society that were supported by the PCSO during its early days, such as women, boy scouts, war veterans, youth, and indigent communities. They are painted in the foreground by the foot of a towering figure of a woman dressed in Filipiniana with arms stretched wide. In the background are figures of horse racing and an edifice that bears the name Quezon Memorial.

Pablo Amorsolo y Cueto (1898-1945) was born in Daet, Camarines Norte on June 26, 1898. When his family moved to Manila, he and his older brother, National Artist Fernando Amorsolo y Cueto (1892-1972), learned painting from their uncle and genre painter Fabian de la Rosa y Cueto (1869-1937) as an apprentice. Pablo graduated in 1924 from the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts. He worked there as an assistant instructor until the start of World War II. He did editorial illustrations for various magazines such as the Graphic, Tribune, La Vanguardia, Herald, and Manila Times. Besides being a genre painter and portraitist, he also created historical paintings such as “Magellan and the Natives” and “The Discovery of the Philippines (1944). By the end of World War II, he was arrested for engaging in the Kempeitai, a military police force of the Imperial Japanese Army, and sentenced to death by firing squad in the hands of the guerillas. He passed away on February 21, 1945, in Antipolo.

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Text by NMP-FAD

Photo by Bengy Toda

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