17th to early 20th century National Fine Arts Collection “Dalagang Bukid”

Posted on:  |  National Museum of the Philippines

For this week’s #ArtStrollSunday series, we are featuring National Artist (NA) Fernando Amorsolo y Cueto’s “Dalagang Bukid [The Country Lass], a 1928 oil painting from the National Fine Arts Collection (NFAC). 

Fernando Amorsolo was born in Paco Manila on May 30, 1892.  He grew up in Daet, Camarines Norte but then moved to Manila and was taken in by his older cousin, Fabian de la Rosa. In 1914, he graduated with honors and was among the first graduates of the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts (UPSFA).

NA Amorsolo pursued further studies in art. In 1916, he went to Madrid, Spain, and studied at the Academia de San Fernando through a scholarship from businessman and philanthropist Enrique Zobel de Ayala. During his training abroad, he acquired the techniques he needed to improve his art further. His style included rapid, fragmented brushwork in impasto, portraying genre scenes, and landscapes of the countryside that he is known for.

The artist produced over 10,000 sketches and studies during his lifetime, which left a lasting legacy and made our artistic heritage richer. On April 24, 1972, he died at the age of 79. Four days after his death, he was posthumously conferred as the country’s first National Artist Award for Painting.

The Dalagang Bukid was Amorsolo’s muse of ideal Filipina beauty.  She is illustrated as a smiling and cheerful lady wearing the baro’t saya, with her hair firmly pulled back by a flowing bandana to protect her from the glare of the afternoon sun. He described his concept of an ideal Philippine beauty as “one with a rounded face, not of oval type…The eyes should be exceptionally lively…the nose should be of blunt form but firm and strongly marked…should have a sensuous mouth, not the type of the pouting mouth of the early days…should not necessarily be white complexioned, nor of the dark brown color…but of the clear skin or flesh colored type which we often witness when we meet a blushing girl”. His use of brilliant colors effectively convey the image that lives in the Philippines around 1937 were largely reliant on agriculture, as evidenced by his other works depicting farmers in the provinces.

“Dalagang Bukid” was given as a Gift to the Nation through the National Museum of the Philippines by Oliver Patrick and Jaimie Eugenio in 2016.

By booking online through this website, you may view this painting by NA Amorsolo inside the Early 20th Century Philippine Portrait Hall, Gallery IX of the National Museum of Fine Arts (NMFA). Click this link for the 360 Virtual Tour of this gallery and eight other galleries at the NMFA: https://www.nationalmuseum.gov.ph/nmfa360/HTML5/NMFA360.html

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Text and photo by NMP-FAD

© National Museum of the Philippines (2021)