PROPERTY FROM THE ALFONSO T. ONGPIN COLLECTION

ABOUT THE WORK

Teodoro Buenaventura Sr. was one of the foremost painters and art teachers in the Philippines. One of the early masters of the classical realism in the country, Buenaventura became fatherless at the age of fourteen, hence coming to Manila to look for work. His education at the Escuela Superior de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado was sponsored by his employer. He also opened the Academia de Dibujo in his home situated in Magdalena Street; some of his students were Serafin Serna, Tomas Bernardo, and Mauro Malang Santos. Buenaventura was also among the founding teachers of the UP School of Fine Arts from its establishment in 1909 to 1935. Sadly, a bulk of his major works were destroyed during World War II, but most of the surviving and preserved works are small landscapes, genre pieces, and portraits. His notable works of the Philippine countryside include rivers, lakes, and streams as well as quiet shades of nature. The central tone often present in his works is a calming shade of green, evoking a quality of stillness. He would also use somber colors and achieve a solidity of mass and a brooding atmosphere through his refined style. Rio De San Juan is his 1927 work— with a note to art patron Alfonso Ongpin who is also his close friend—in which the artist concerns himself with the inviting atmosphere of a serene scene in which evocations of light and complementing colors bring out the beauty of nature.