1903 Oil on canvas mounted on board 72 x 59 cm (28 1/4 x 23 1/4 in) A possible study for Pinedas eponymous award-winning painting from the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, this painting, signed a year before in 1903, portrays five women preparing betel nuts while a man sits with a book in the background. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition was a seven-month long worlds fair, which devoted 47-acres to the Philippine Exhibition. Wanting to display the culture of Americas newly acquired colony, the exhibit incorporated some 1,100 Filipinos within the display including tribal Moros, Bagobos, Igorots and Negritos. From the Western perspective, the indigenous Filipinos were touted as dog-eaters and savages. As part of the 100 structures in the Philippine grounds was the Government building, where paintings by Fabian de la Rosa, Felix Ressureccion Hidalgo, Juan Luna (who had some 21 works on display), and Jorge Pineda, which were meant to represent the sophisticated side of the Philippines. Pineda won two awards for his efforts, a Bronze for his painting, A Filipino Girl, and an Honorable Mention for, Preparing the Betel Nuts (Las Buyeras). While the painting included in the 1904 exhibition is believed to be of a much bigger scale, what is certain is that this version was painted while Pineda was in the process of planning for the fair. Las Buyeras is Philippine genre painting at its finest, inviting viewers into an intimate circle, showing Pinedas refined sentimentality towards his subjects. The painting emanates a silence in atmosphere that highlights both a commonality and singularity between each of the women. Despite a hardened gaze and a look of longing, Pinedas deliberate strokes and dramatic play with light and shadow generates a warmth that radiates beyond the canvas.,Felix Resurrecion Hidalgo