Born in Manila in 1914, Magsaysay-Ho is probably the first Filipina artist who gained international acclaim. Stories abound of how her 1956 painting In the Marketplace fetched a whopping S$669,250 (roughly P15 million)—26 times the original catalog estimate—at an auction in Christie’s Singapore in 1999. The painting is undoubtedly unique; it uses egg tempera, a traditional painting method that was popular in the early Renaissance period and considered the most difficult painting medium to prepare and handle.

Over the years, Magsaysay-Ho has received first prizes for The Cooks in 1952 and Two Women in 1960 from the Art Association of the Philippines annual competitions. Before World War II, she was short-listed by the National Artist Victorio Edades as among the “13 Moderns” of the country. She is also endearingly called the “Female Amorsolo” because of her preference for painting women just like the great artist Fernando Amorsolo.

Magsaysay-Ho, as a married woman, lived in different countries with her Chinese husband Robert—in Tokyo, Brazil, Vancouver, Montreal, New York, Hong Kong, Washington, D.C., and Manila. But always, the subjects of her paintings featured scenes of Filipino rural life, the images, which she saw every day while growing up on a farm in Zambales. And always, her subjects would be women.

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