PROPERTY FROM THE ARTIST'S COLLECTION
Young Lady with Fan (Miss Rosales)
signed (lower right)dated 1949
oil on canvas
24" x 18 1/2" (61 cm x 47 cm)




During Juvenal Sansó’s student years at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts, the promising young artist found companions in Larry Alcala, Rodolfo Ragodon, and Benjamin Ossorio. But Sansó found a lifelong friendship in the person of a lovely enchantress by the name of Tipin Rosales. Like her friend and contemporary Sansó, Rosales was then a budding artist who mainly focused on themes depicting Chinese landscapes and floral subjects. Back in their university years, Rosales was very much admired as a “Campus Beauty.” Rosales had been immortalized in several portraits. One such fine example is this 1949 work by Sansó, which depicts Rosales holding a hand fan, thus resembling a dignified empress. Her sultry eyes, mesmerizing side profile, sharp nose, and naturally plump lips bear the hallmarks of her bewitching beauty. Indeed, one can imagine Rosales as the belle of every ball, a guaranteed head-turner whenever she graced the halls of the fine arts building at UP. This portrait is one of two works by Sansó, in which Rosales is the primary muse. Aside from Sansó’s canvas, the comely Rosales had also been revered in works by several other prominent artists. This included Fernando Amorsolo, the Dean of the UP School of Fine Arts during Sansó and Rosales’ time, and Ireneo Miranda and Guillermo Tolentino, two of their respected professors at the university. The famed cartoonist Larry Alcala had also immortalized Rosales in his Tipin comic strips, published from 1951 to 1965 in Hiwaga komiks. (A.M.)