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Did you know that Fernando Amorsolo's last painting is an unfinished portrait of Vicki Belo's mom?
The late National Artist Fernando Amorsolo passed away in 1972 at the age of 79. His last known painting was an intriguing unfinished portrait of a fair-skinned woman. The lady in the painting had a bouffant hairstyle, wore a small necklace and pink top, and for many decades nobody knew her name.
In 2018, the National Museum of the Philippines confirmed the woman's identity in the unfinished portrait as Florencia "Nena" Singson Gonzalez-Belo, the mother of celebrity doctor Dr. Vicki Belo. The portrait was donated by Amorsolo's widow, Maria del Carmen Amorsolo, together with the Filipino painter's studio furniture, memorabilia, and more than 100 studies and drawings.
It was in 2016 when the museum found a lead on the identity of the then-unknown woman in the Amorsolo painting through socialite Judy Araneta Roxas, the mother of former politician Mar Roxas, when she was touring the museum.
"She pointed out that the last portrait of Amorsolo was 'Nena' Belo," the museum said.
While Roxas sounded certain, the museum needed to "apply due diligence in establishing its provenance based on research through archival data, interviews and connecting with our network who might have known Mrs. Gonzalez-Belo."
"It took more than two years to convince the Belo family through our friend and film director Quark Henares, Dr. Belo's son, to help us verify the identity of the portrait," the National Museum shared on Facebook.
On Instagram, Vicki herself confirmed in 2017 that it was indeed her mom who was in the painting.
"All my mom's five sisters had Amorsolo portraits, and when I asked her why she didn't have [one], she said that she had posed for it but didn't know what had happened to it," the celebrity doctor said.
"Well, it was never finished and surfaced 65 years later," she added.
When the Belo family visited the museum six years ago, Vicki and Hayden Kho's daughter, Scarlet Snow, also took a photo with a portrait of Juan Luna's son, Andres "Luling" Luna de San Pedro, who resembles her.
"The family went to see Luling's painting in our gallery devoted to Luna and his contemporary Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo," the museum wrote.
"As it happens, there seems quite a likeness between him and Scarlet," it added.
In a previous "Kuya Kim, Ano Na?" segment in "24 Oras," Kim Atienza explained that Amorsolo is dubbed as the "Grand Old Man of Philippine Art" due to his significant contributions to Philippine art.
The late National Artist has been in the headlines as of late after an 88-year-old painting by Amorsolo was stolen at the Hofileña Museum in Silay, Negros Occidental.
The 1936 painting, "Mango Harvesters," was stolen last Wednesday, July 3, when the museum had a large number of visitors. The search for the stolen painting is still underway.
— Hermes Joy Tunac/CDC, GMA Integrated News
