Provenance: Private Collection, Spain

ABOUT THE WORK

FÉLIX RESURRECCIÓN HIDALGO POET OF THE PHILIPPINE LANDSCAPE by LISA GUERRERO NAKPIL Among the most coveted works by Félix Resurrección Hidalgo are his Philippine landscapes, created when he was at the first crest of his distinguished career, as a young prodigy at the Manila Academia. He was already destined for greatness. Resurreccion Hidalgo would know better than his family what his ultimate fate would be, as intoned by an admirer, painter and culturati Fabian de la Rosa as one of the ‘two pillars of Philippine art alongside Juan Luna.’ Remarkably, he would have a first and public presentation of his works while a student at the well-known Teatro-Circulo de Bilibid, possibly financed and arranged by his wealthy family. That exhibition would feature his legendary works La Barca (a view of an elegant india stepping into a boat) and Vendedora de Lanzanos (the fruit seller.) Several of these works would receive such acclaim that they would be sent to the Philadelphia Exposition years later in 1879. He would next try out at an important competition, vying for the honor with his own teacher to illustrate the cover of the monumental La Flora de Filipinas, the botanical brainchild of Fray Manuel Blanco. Resurreccion Hidalgo would not win that particular award but instead be selected as one of the pensionados to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. The work at hand reflects the audacious talent of Resurreccion Hidalgo, so delicate and pristine as it captures a country scene at the river’s edge. It’s astonishingly dexterous, with such fine brushwork that nevertheless details a scene of bucolic bliss. A stand of banana trees and dark foliage partly conceal a hut. In the immediate foreground is the outline of a man who has taken his horse to water; the house’s thatched roof can be glimpsed because a pair of grey and white birds sit at its very top. To the side is a lushly verdant mango tree, the kind that is unstoppable in its growth even after it has been felled by a storm that often visits these islands. Resurreccion Hidalgo has added an effect of a fine mist that brings the background cleverly out of focus, foretelling his future obsession with the newfangled art of photography in his later years in Paris. It is a tour de force by such a young man.