PROPERTY FROM THE DOÑA NENE QUIMSON COLLECTION

ABOUT THE WORK

Like his uncle, the equally talented Simon Flores, Fabian de la Rosa would find himself enrolled as well at the Manila Academia in Intramuros. Orphaned at age 16, however, he would have to drop out in his third year. He would remain a lifelong friend with his teacher, the most admired of his time, Don Lorenzo Guerrero. De la Rosa would soon take his talent for painting to the sidewalk, selling small works to tourists for fifty centavos each. He is said to have honed his talents from both the city and the country, from where he became acquainted with the minutiae of daily life by dint of hard work and the use of his powers of observation. In this striking pair of views of the Pasig River, he demonstrates the dexterity that would make him one of the most sought-after landscape painters — a watershed moment that he would establish as the link between the two other great artists from his bloodline : Simon Flores and Fernando Amorsolo. Both exemplify what the art critic Aurelio Alvero would call the pinnacle of de la Rosa’s artistry : when “seeking atmospheric vibration, and unshackled by academic details, he boldly strikes a different note.” The twin reflections on the water show different facets of Filipino country life: the first, captures the coolness of an early morning breeze while the second, depicts the warmth of a summer afternoon. One expresses the solitude brought with the oneness of nature; the other, the busyness of a happy home life; two neighbors living side by side, demonstrated by a pair of thatch roofs, clotheslines bowed down with laundry. Between 1893 and 1897, Fabian de la Rosa would begin to make a name for himself, alongside his contemporaries Jorge Pineda and Ramon Peralta. He would become successful enough to be impatient and in 1898, began lobbying for the annual Madrid art scholarships be re-instated. It would be the only that he could possibly afford to study abroad. His chances would be swept away by the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine-American War that followed soon after. Nevertheless, he would continue to build a clientele of the wealthy who would come to his studio to be immortalized in portraits. At the pivotal St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904 — where the newly-minted American empire was eager to show off its latest possession — Fabian de la Rosa brought home the gold for his work “Planting Rice”. It was the passing of the baton from Spain’s enfant terrible Juan Luna to the verdant vistas of Fabian de la Rosa. The new colonial caesars had correctly divined that art was the final act of conquest.