There is nothing more rewarding than being able to shape the Filipino art scene and help hone the talents of many young and promising individuals. In 1909, Amorosolo graduated with honours from the Art School of Liceo de Manila. He then enrolled in the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman College of Fine Arts at seventeen years old. Here, he was mentored by his uncle Fabian de la Rosa. From 1938 to 1952, he went back to his alma mater to mentor young artists as the school's director. 

According to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the remains of military personnel from privates to generals, people who served during the First and Second World War, Philippine Presidents, national heroes, artists, and scientists should be buried at the Libingan Ng Mga Bayani or Heroes' Cemetery. This guideline stemmed from the AFP Regulation G 161-373.

As a National Artist, Amorsolo is entitled to a lot in the Heroes' Cemetery; however, his remains will never be found in the area. His family refused to have his body transferred to the cemetery, saying that this will only cost taxpayers more money. 

Related: The National Artist Awards: Controversy, Winners, And Its Significance

At the age of 25, Amorsolo married his first wife Salud Jorge whom he had six children. In his second marriage, the National Artist reportedly fathered eight more children, bringing the number of his sons and daughters to 14.

According to the Fernando C. Amorsolo Art Foundation, which was also established by his children, Amorsolo had an additional six children with a common-law wife between his two marriages. This brings his children total to 20.

Philippine Women’s University (PWU) Professor Don S. Amorsolo, the grandchild of the late National Artist, said that at the prime of the latter's career, he would finish at least four paintings a day. “He lived in times when a painter must paint,” the PWU professor explained. “He loved to do that. Sometimes, he would paint simply because he would like to capture a memory.”

“There is this painting by him where my father was included; it was a painting where my father was among his children carrying a sack of rice through a pushcart during the time of war. My father would get the sack of rice from Antipolo and bring it to him in his house. You may check more of his paintings at the Vargas Museum in U.P. Diliman," Don added.

The Second World War was an era that many of its victims could not look back on. It was the same for Amorsolo who had to paint in exchange for food, army pass, and transportation. His grandchild, Professor Don, noted that Japanese soldiers and other high-ranking officials asked him to make portraits from time to time. "They [soldiers] would ask him to make portraits. Aside from that, he would paint the scenes of war he witnessed through impressionism,” Don narrated. “One time, he painted what was happening in a war while he was on the second floor of a building. When it was happening quite near him, he would make quick sketches.” 

Tatler trivia: Many of Amorsolo's experimental works on darker hues and shades were painted during and even after the Second World War; examples would be the Burning of Manila (1942), a painting that captures a horrific event at the Manila Bay during the Japanese Occupation, Defensa de Honor (1950), where a man is protecting a woman raped by an unseen Japanese soldier, and Bataan (1942), where a young woman serenely looks at the sky while on bended knees before a fallen Filipino soldier. Some art critics trace this to the unjust killing of his younger brother Pablo, also an artist who was perceived as a Japanese conspirator by the guerillas.

For some of Amorsolo's critics, this act meant that the artist succumbed to commercialism or making art at the expense of quality for profit. One of his well-known critics, Filipino writer, poet, essayist, critic, journalist, and teacher Francisco "Franz" Arcellana, wrote in 1948 that the artist's works "have nothing to say" and that they were not hard to understand for there is "nothing to understand".

Read more: A Look at the Art of Mabini Street in Ermita, Manila

After the Second World War, Amorsolo kept up with his style of romanticism which was largely influenced by the late Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla, whom he met during his sojourn in Spain. However, instead of copying the former's Valencian light style that is cool, Amorsolo was better off with bright, yellowish colours that captured Philippine sunlight. 

In his seven-month stay in Spain, Amorsolo reinvented himself; from a provincial artist, he became an international figure who can integrate Western Impressionism in his works. According to historian Floriana Capistrano-Baker, Amorsolo used "swift, broken brushwork and thick impasto, with emphasis on landscapes and daily scenes." When he returned to Manila, Amorsolo set up a studio and began an enormously productive period. 

His new and improved works include his Rice Planting painting and The First Mass in The Philippines which have been reproduced through calendar prints, posters, and travel brochures. 

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