Félix Resurrección Hidalgo y Padilla (February 21, 1855 – March 13, 1913) was a

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

artist. He is acknowledged as one of the greatest Filipino painters of the late 19th century, and is significant in

Philippine history Earliest hominin activity in the Philippine archipelago is dated back to at least 709,000 years ago. ''Homo luzonensis'', a species of archaic humans, was present on the island of Luzon at least 67,000 years ago. The earliest known anatomically ...

for having been an acquaintance and inspiration for members of the Philippine reform movement which included

José Rizal José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda (, ; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is considered the national he ...

Marcelo del Pilar Marcelo Hilario del Pilar y Gatmaitán (; ; August 30, 1850July 4, 1896), commonly known as Marcelo H. del Pilar and also known by his pen name Pláridel,.''Filipinos in History: Volume II'', National Historical Institute, 1990, p. 101 was a F ...

Mariano Ponce Mariano Ponce y Collantes (March 22, 1863 – May 23, 1918) was a Filipino physician, writer and active member of the Propaganda Movement. In Spain, he was among the founders of ''La Solidaridad'' and ''Asociación Hispano-Filipino''. Among his ...

, and

Graciano López Jaena Graciano López y Jaena (; December 18, 1856 – January 20, 1896), commonly known as Graciano López Jaena, was a Filipino journalist, orator, reformist, and national hero who is well known for his newspaper, ''La Solidaridad''. Philippine h ...

, although he neither involved himself directly in that movement, nor later associate himself with the

First Philippine Republic The Philippine Republic ( es, República Filipina), now officially known as the First Philippine Republic, also referred to by historians as the Malolos Republic, was established in Malolos, Bulacan during the Philippine Revolution against ...

under

Emilio Aguinaldo Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy (: March 22, 1869February 6, 1964) was a Filipino revolutionary, statesman, and military leader who is the youngest president of the Philippines (1899–1901) and is recognized as the first president of the Philippine ...

. His winning the silver medal in the 1884 Madrid Exposition of Fine Arts, along with the gold win of fellow Filipino painter

Juan Luna Juan Luna de San Pedro y Novicio Ancheta (, ; October 23, 1857 – December 7, 1899) was a Filipino painter, sculptor and a political activist of the Philippine Revolution during the late 19th century. He became one of the first recogniz ...

, prompted a celebration which was a major highlight in the memoirs of members of the Philippine reform movement, with Rizal toasting to the two painters' good health and citing their win as evidence that Filipinos and Spaniards were equals. El Asesinato del Gobernador Bustamante

Early life and education

Hidalgo was born in

Binondo, Manila Binondo () is a district in Manila and is referred to as the city's Chinatown. Its influence extends beyond to the places of Quiapo, Santa Cruz, San Nicolas and Tondo. It is the oldest Chinatown in the world, established in 1594 by the ...

on February 21, 1855. He was the third of seven children of Eduardo Resurrección Hidalgo and María Bárbara Padilla. He studied law in the

University of Santo Tomas The University of Santo Tomas (also known as UST and officially as the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, Manila) is a private, Catholic research university in Manila, Philippines. Founded on April 28, 1611, by Spanish friar Miguel ...

, though he never finished it. His interests in the arts made him study art in Europe, from 1879 to 1881 under a scholarship funded by the Spanish government at the

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal acad ...

in Madrid. He was also enrolled under Spanish painter Agustin Saez at the Escuela de Dibujo y Pintura. In 1876, he previewed his works, ''La barca'' and ''Vendedora de lanzones'', among others, at the Teatro Circo de Bilibid before they were sent to the

Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

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that same year. In 1878, he painted ''Los mendigos''.

Life abroad

Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas Al Populacho (The Christian Virgins Being Exposed to the Populace) by Felix Ressureccion Hidalgo 1884

In 1877, Resurrección Hidalgo was awarded second place in the contest for best cover design for the deluxe edition of Fr. Manuel Blanco's ''Flora de Filipinas''. In 1879, Hidlago left for Spain as a pensionado in fine arts of the

Ayuntamiento de Manila The Ayuntamiento de Manila (Manila City Hall) is a building located at the corner of Andrés Soriano Avenue (formerly, ''Calle Aduana'') and Cabildo Street, fronting Plaza de Roma in Intramuros, Manila, Philippines. Also known as the Casas Consi ...

. His '' Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho'', was awarded the ninth silver medal at the 1884 Exposición General de Bellas Artes in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. see also
Gaceta de Madrid, no. 164, 12/06/1884, p. 694
/ref> This showed a group of boorish looking males mocking semi-naked female Christians, one of whom is seated in the foreground, with head bowed in misery. In the same exposition, Luna's ''

Spoliarium The ''Spoliarium'' (often misspelled ''Spolarium'') is a painting by Filipino painter Juan Luna. Luna, working on canvas, spent eight months completing the painting which depicts dying gladiators. The painting was submitted by Luna to the ''Expos ...

'' was awarded a gold medal. In the Exposición General de las Islas Filipinas in Madrid in 1887, Hidalgo presented ''

La barca de Aqueronte ''La barca de Aqueronte'', translated in English as ''The Boat of Charon'' or ''Charon's Boat'', is an 1887 oil on canvas and allegorical paintingExposition Universelle in Paris and was awarded a silver medal by an international jury. In 1891, it was accorded a diploma of honor at the Exposición General de Bellas Artes of

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. This painting also received a gold medal in the International Exposition of Fine Arts in Madrid during the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the

discovery of the Americas The prehistory of the Americas (North America, North, South America, South, and Central America, and the Caribbean) begins with people migrating to these areas from Asia during the height of an ice age. These groups are generally believed to have ...

La Barca de Aqueronte by Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo 1887

He exhibited '' Adios del Sol'', 1891 at the Exposición Internacional de Bellas Artes in Madrid in that year and ''El crepusculo'' at the Universal Exposition in Chicago. He showed both paintings again at the Exposición Artistica de Bilbao in August 1894. In the Exposición Regional de Filipinas in Manila in January 1895, Hidalgo was represented by his paintings done in the grand romantic manner. In April of the same year he exhibited ''Oedipus y Antigone'', ''El violinista'', ''Cabeza napolitana'', ''Cabeza del viejo'', ''Un religioso'', and others at the Salon at

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in Paris. Hidalgo received a gold medal for his overall participation at the Universal Exposition in

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in 1904. His ''El violinista'' was individually accorded a gold medal. In 1912, he visited his relatives in Manila for six months, after which he hurried back to Paris to see his dying mother. The following year, Resurrección-Hidalgo died in

where he went to recuperate from failing health. His remains were brought to the Philippines, where it now lies entombed at the Cementerio del Norte in Manila.

Books and Publications

* ''Félix Resurrección Hidalgo & the Generation of 1872'' by Alfredo R. Roces, Eugenio López Foundation, 1998. * ''A Guide to Luna and Hidalgo Paintings in the López Memorial Museum'' by Lopez Museum, Eugenio López Foundation, 1979.

Major Artworks

* ''La barca'', 1876 * ''Vendedora de lanzones'', 1876 * '' Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho'', 1884 * ''The Young Woman Sewing'', 1885 * ''Jesucristo'', 1887 * ''

La barca de Aqueronte ''La barca de Aqueronte'', translated in English as ''The Boat of Charon'' or ''Charon's Boat'', is an 1887 oil on canvas and allegorical painting La Laguna Estigia ''La Laguna Estigia'' (''The River Styx'' or ''The Styx''), also known simply as ''Laguna Estigia'', is an 1887 Greco-Roman painting by Filipino painter Félix Resurrección Hidalgo. It is a companion-piece for Hidalgo's other painting entitled ...

'', 1887 * '' La Pintura'', Undated (c. 1890s) * '' Adios del Sol'', 1891 * ''El crepusculo'', 1893 * ''Oedipus y Antigone'', 1895 * ''El violinista'', 1895 * ''Cabeza napolitana'', 1895 * ''Cabeza del viejo'', 1895 * ''Un religioso'', 1895 * ''Self portrait'', 1901 * ''Per Pacem et Libertatem'', 1903

Legacy

In 1988, Hidalgo and works of his contemporary

were jointly exhibited in a major retrospective exhibition, ''First National Juan Luna and Félix Resurrección Hidalgo Commemorative Exhibition'' at the

Metropolitan Museum of Manila The Metropolitan Museum of Manila (nicknamed the Met) is one of the major museums in the city located within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Complex along Roxas Boulevard in the Malate district of Manila, the Philippines. It bills itself ...

featuring works gathered from leading public and private collections.

Auction history

Several paintings by Hidalgo rank among the most expensive paintings in Philippine art ever sold at auction. In 2016, ''La Inocencia'' (1901) a portrait from the private collection of the Legarda collection, sold for

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared toward web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group ...

40.88 million (US$823,695.35) at Leon Gallery in the Philippines. In October 2018, an earlier work from the Philippine period ''Pareja de jóvenes tagalos ante un rio'' (1879) was sold for PHP51.60 million (US$957,863.78) at Subastas Segre in Spain that served previously as the world record. Subsequently, in December 2018, an ''Untitled (Sailing off the Cliffs of Étretat in Normandy)'' (1909) was sold for a record PHP30.368 million (US$579,431.41) at Leon Gallery becoming Hidalgo's first work from his later period to surpass the PHP30 million mark. In 2019, '' La Pintura'' (1890s) painting by Hidalgo was sold for a record PHP 78.256 million (US$1.51 million) at Salcedo Auctions in the Philippines, becoming the most expensive artwork sold by the artist internationally.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Resurreccion Hidalgo, Felix Filipino painters Filipino landscape painters 1855 births 1913 deaths People from Binondo Burials at the Manila North Cemetery University of Santo Tomas alumni