PABLO CUETO AMORSOLO

AMORSOLO, PABLO CUETO b. Daet, Camarines Norte, 26 Jun 1898 d. Antipolo, Raal 1945, Painter His

parents were Pedro Amorsolo and Bonifacio Cueto, When he was eight, his family went to Manila where he

studied drawing under his uncle, Fabian de la Rosa, the well known master. He completed elementary and

secondary schooling at the Liceo de Manila, and graduated from the University of the Philippines (UP) School

of Fine Arts in 1924. Two Years later he was appointed assistant instructor in the school. where he taught until

WWII broke out.

An admirer of classical art, Amorsolo was also a strong advocate of modern art. In the 1930s he was one or

the most prolific editorial illustrators in pen and ink for such publications as the Graphic, Tribune, La

Vanguardia, Herald, and others, He also served as artist for the Manila Times His illustrations, which

portrayed a wide variety of domestic and social situations, contributed to the rise of genre art in the country.

When portraits were in vogue during the prewar years, Amorsolo was one of the best portrait painters. His

skilled brushwork could breathe life into his subjects, which he painted truthfully and without idealization. He

painted subjects from all social classes and age levels, It was in these portraits that he showed his deep

understanding of the individual human personality, Historical subjects also interested him, as in his painting

Magellan and the Natives and in his large-scale masterpiece The Discovery of the Philippines, painted in 1944.

Few of Pablo Armsolo's paintings are extant because a large number of his works were destroyed in a fire in

1945.

Pablo sincerely advocated the Greater East Asia Co Prosperity Sphere and served as a colonel in the Kempetai.

When the Americans returned, he was captured by Philippine troops and was killed by a guerilla firing squad

in Antipolo.