From Betsy's Brush

For 60 years, Betsy Westendorp has created beautiful canvases that have brought joy to many homes. It is now time for a proper tribute.

- Chit L Lijauco

At 21, Betsy Westendorp left her home in Spain to follow her one true love, Antonio Brias, to Manila. Since then, she has impressively assimilated into Philippine society and embraced her second home. In Manila, too, she resumed her art, started at 13 but interrupted by her marriage, her move to Manila and the fact that Brias was not so keen on seeing his young bride pick up the brush again. Painting on the sly while her husband was at work, Westendorp started with portraiture, which immediately drew a steady flow of clientele. Brias must have known but perhaps elected to turn the other way. She also started to paint flowers but segued to landscapes, seascapes and clouds. That was 60 years of work and today, in many a home in Manila and elsewhere hangs a Westendorp, or two or more.

This work is now the subject of Passages: A Retrospective Exhibition of Betsy Westendorp, the first salvo for 2021 of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila (The Met). The exhibition’s underlying story is the artist’s departure from Spain to commence what would be a lifetime relationship with the Philippines. It also reveals the paths that would lead to her self-definition as a woman, a wife, a mother and an artist.