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Leon Gallery’s recently concluded The Magnificent September Auction 2024 has witnessed yet another important milestone in Philippine art; the country’s most trusted auction house broke its own world record for the most expensive Fernando Amorsolo painting. Under the Mango Tree, the magnum opus of the country’s first national artist, was sold for PHP 56,676,800, surpassing the record set by the Peracamps Mango Gatherers, which was sold for PHP 46.7 million at Leon Gallery’s The Spectacular Mid-Year Auction 2018.
Dubbed the greatest masterpiece of Amorsolo, Under the Mango Tree, comes from the collection of the pre-war American industrialist Edward Joseph Nell, who is called the “Father of Philippine Air-conditioning” for his legacy of bringing Carrier Incorporated here in the country. The masterwork, which hails from the peak of Amorsolo’s “Golden Period” when he became the prime painter of the Philippines, possesses the trifecta of impeccable provenance, historical context, and beautiful subject matter. These qualities combined made a perfect recipe for the stellar success of the painting, which has long been in the Nell Family for almost a century—from when it was painted in 1929 until it was recently repatriated to the country through the efforts of Leon Gallery director Jaime Ponce de Leon.
Also fascinating was Amorsolo’s Ifugaos in Mines View Park, which brought in PHP 18,042,000. The work captures both Amorsolo’s homage to the Cordillera people of the Northern Philippines and the historic gold rush in the region (particularly in Benguet and Baguio City) during the 1930s, in which the American mining magnates commissioned Amorsolo to paint them souvenirs of their golden exploits.
