Provenance: Private Collection, Madrid

ABOUT THE WORK

In the 19th and early 20th century, decorative fans were held by young Filipina senoritas, who would shoo away unworthy suitors by briskly fanning themselves. "Don’t even waste your time," was the explicit, ego-deflating message. When we think of fans, we are usually thinking of the folding varieties. But folding fans are a relatively recent development in the vast fan timeline. Once they arrived in the West in the 17th century, however, they quickly took over. Chinese fans with handles made of black lacquered wood, or perhaps a stick of ivory, were popular especially in the West at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. This fan made of ivory with a charming Philippine scene of a hut and a farmer was painted by Felix Martinez. Most of Martinez' work known today are genre pieces, like The Pasig River (Central Bank Collection) and Card Players (Luis Ma. Araneta Collection). These works show him as a costumbrista, whose treatment of themes is imbued with incisive realism. Martinez’ tipos are realistic flesh-and-blood indios. As for the rest of the bucolic scene, textural details, tonal contrasts and luminous atmosphere are handled with consummate skill. One of Felix Martinez' early achievements was when he was asked to render some plates for the deluxe edition of Fr. Blanco’s Flora de Filipinas (Plants of the Philippines). In 1878, one of his drawings was featured in the newspaper La Ilustracion del Oriente. In 1882, he won a silver medal for his entry to the contest commemorating the 300th anniversary of Santa Teresa de Avila. From this time, Martinez became one of the most prestigious painters of Manila. Six of his landscapes were sent to Madrid in 1884; a year later, he held a solo exhibition at the Tienda de Catalanes. He served as illustrator for magazines like La Ilustracion Filipina. He was also renowned for portraits of several governor generals, and of members of the Parterno, Tuason, Tambunting, and Escudero families. He also helped decorate the San Sebastian Church and the San Ignacio church in the 1890s. In 1904, Felix Martinez obtained a bronze medal for his overall collaboration at the St. Louis Universal Exposition, another medal for Portrait of an Old Woman, and honorable mention each for Holy Water Fountain and for Manila Bay in the same exposition.