ABOUT THE WORK

I t was no accident that the generation of Rizal’s Indios Bravos would find such resonance in the Year 1889 and the Paris Exposition Universelle. It was, after all, the 100th year of the French Revolution and the precepts of ‘Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity’ that would inspire them all to envision a different future for their own country. Juan Luna by then was the most acclaimed, having brought home the gold for the Spoliarium in 1884 and igniting a feeding frenzy among the media of the time that would make him the most famous painter in Spain. But there were new horizons to be conquered, chief of which was Paris which was the world’s center for the arts. It was a time for the ilustrados to stand up and be counted in making the voice of the Filipino heard. Joining Luna in his quest were his brothers-in-law the sculptor Felix and the scholar Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, fellow painter Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, and no less than Jose Rizal himself (who would exhibit a bust of TH Pardo de Tavera at the Salon de Paris 1889.)