Literature: Literature: Labrador, Ana. Fabian de la Rosa and His Times. Vibal Publishing, Manila. 2007. p.71.

ABOUT THE WORK

A narrative of light, Fabian de la Rosa looks to the remote landscapes of the country to inspire his moody and richly textured paintings. He brings together aspects of painting in narrative works that highlight some of the country’s most impressive cultural images. With an eye for detail and an assured technique, he brings his “barely there” subjects to life with a deceptive sense of economy. One of the most profound influences on Philippine genre and painting, in general, was Fabian de la Rosa, the brightest name in Philippine painting after Luna and certainly the most important in the first quarter of the century. As an artist, de la Rosa saw life with a cool eye, without the wistful lyricism of Hidalgo or the heroics of Luna. His style, a realism tempered by a genteel native sensitivity learned from Simon Flores, was bolstered by a knowledge of the realist school of Courbet, boosted by his stay in Europe. He saw people and landscapes with a profound respect for their unguarded moments, quiet strength, and simplicity. In this bucolic landscape, de la Rosa reworks the familiar themes of workers in the fields, but with an even greater sense of emotion and grandeur. Out of deceptively simple visual ingredients, and a result of a lifetime’s relationship with nature, he has created an almost palpable emotion of landscape. However, while there is no imaginary audience implied by this picture, there is nevertheless a real one: the observer.