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Portrait of Sra. Doña Marcela Meer and Don Nicolas C. Millar signed and dated 1954 (lower left) oil on canvas 28" x 36 1/2" (71 cm x 93 cm) Sra. Doña Marcela Meer Millar is something of a regular of National Artist Fernando Amorsolo. Counting at least two portraits made by the maestro, she hails from a family of lawyers, with her brothers Bibiano L. Meer, former Commissioner of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs, and Pablo L. Meer serving as pillars in the legal and business sectors. Her marriage to local businessman Don Nicholas Millar was similarly star-studded. News of it graced the 10 April 1932 issue of The Sunday Tribune, with many of their guests including lauded politicians and citizens. Senate President Manuel L. Quezon, Secretary Jose Abad Santos, ex-senator Jose P. Laurel, and Carlos P. Romulo, among others, were invited. Then-Director of the Philippine Library and Museum Teodoro M. Kalaw was one of the couple’s sponsors. It was a marriage for the ages, a veritable who’s who of the country’s most influential people. Nearly two decades following their wedding, Sra. Doña Marcela Meer Millar and Don Nicholas C. Millar posed for a portrait by Fernando R. Amorsolo. Though perhaps better known for his scenic masterpieces, Amorsolo is a renowned portraitist in his own right. With portraiture a major source of income and clientele, it could be said that some of his best works are portraits, as befitting a master of figure painting. “He was famed as a great portraitist,” his daughter Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo wrote in the introduction of the first volume of Amorsolo: Love & Passion. “When looking at an Amorsolo portrait, any viewer would feel as if one is seeing the subject in person.” His subjects’ eyes also seem to follow the viewer, almost as though they were alive and breathing. His portraits pose a different side between his “public” style, as shown by his genre works, and his “private” style, which is his portraits. As is the case with many of the best painters in history, Fernando Amorsolo has dedicated himself to the look of a well-dressed man or woman just as much as he does with genre works. In true retratista fashion, he gives Don and Doña Millar the embellishments that surmise the opulence of the 1950s high society – Doña Marcela’s high-quality woven baro’t saya contrasting Don Nicholas’ suit and tie. Thus, this work becomes a memento of a maestro’s exemplary skills, ranging from a snapshot of a bucolic countryside to a portrait of high society’s darlings. (Hannah Valiente)