Fabian De La Rosa

FABIAN DE LA ROSA (filipino1869-1937) "ROOFS OF PARIS" Signed, inscribed, and dated 'F de la Rosa / Paris 1928' bottomleft, oil on canvas laid down on board 18 1/2 x 15 in. (47 x 38.1cm) Acquired directly from the artist in the Philippines, April 3,1936. Collection of Dr. Noel J. Cortes, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

2375 - FABIAN DE LA ROSA Filippinerna 1869-1937 Porträtt föreställande gosse med hatt Signerad och daterad F. de la Rosa Manilla 1910. Olja på duk, 74 x 48 cm. Signed and dated. Oil on canvas. Don Fabian de la Rosa föddes i Paco, Manilla, 1869. Redan som tioåring fick han sin första utbildning i måleri, då av en moster, Mariana de la Rosa. Han var den klart lysande stjärnan inom det filippinska 1900-talsmåleriet och definitivt landets viktigaste konstnär under början av 1900-talet. Särskilt uppmärksammad blev han för sina karaktärsporträtt. Innan de la Rosa avslutat någon formell akademisk utbildning målade han La Perla de Lucban, hans första kända mästerverk och det äldsta existerande arbete,vid tjugotvå års ålder. År 1893 antogs han till Escuela Superior de Pintura, Grabado y Escultura. Så småningom lämnade han Akademien och för att utveckla sina konstnärliga ideer besökte han helt okända målares ateljeer för att samla intryck. År 1908, då universitetet Phillippines School of Fine Arts grundades, erhöll la Rosa ett stipendium från Germinal Cigar Factory för studier i Europa vilket ledde till Academie de Julien i Paris och Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando i Madrid. När Fabian de la Rosa återvände till Filippinerna 1910 engagerade han sig i den framstående fakulteten UP School of Fine Arts, som bestod av studenter, forskare och professorer från den gamla Akademien. Hans skicklighet och rykte som porträttmålare var genuint och få kunde tävla med honom i den diciplinen. Under perioden 1927-1937 var de la Rosa chef för UP School of Fine Arts och fick stifta bekantskap med en ny generation av blivande mästare som Fernando Amorsolo, dennes bror Pablo, Toribio Herrera, Ireneo Miranda, Ambrosio Morales och Guillermo Tolentino. Don Fabian de la Rosa was born in Paco, Manila, in 1869. He received his first lessons in painting at the age of ten when he was taught by one of his aunts, Mariana de la Rosa. He was the shining star of 20th century painting in the Philippines, and clearly the most important artist in the country around the start of the 1900s. His character portraits in particular attracted a great deal of attention. Before de la Rosa completed any formal academic training, he painted La Perla de Lucban, his first recognised masterpiece and his oldest existing work, at the age of 22. In 1893, he was accepted into the Escuela Superior de Pintura, Grabado y Escultura. He gradually parted company with the Academy, visiting the studios of unknown artists to collect impressions and develop his own artistic ideas. In 1908, when the University Philippines School of Fine Arts was founded, de la Rosa was awarded a scholarship from the Germinal Cigar Factory to study in Europe. This led the young artist to the Academie de Julien in Paris and the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. When Fabian de la Rosa returned to the Philippines in 1910, he became involved in the progressive faculty of the UP School of Fine Arts, which was made up of students, researchers and teachers from the old Academy. His skill and reputation as a portrait painter were well-founded, and few artists could compare with him in this discipline. During the period 1927-1937, de la Rosa was head of the UP School of Fine Arts and made the acquaintance of a new generation of up-and-coming masters such as Fernando Amorsolo and his brother Pablo, Toribio Herrera, Ireneo Miranda, Ambrosio Morales and Guillermo Tolentino. Utrop: SEK 150 000-200 000 (EUR 15 000-20 000)

Landscape, 1919 Oil on canvas, framed; depicting a group of buildings within a city wall in the middle ground framed by trees in the left foreground, the lower right signed F. de la Rosa above Manila 1919 (minor surface soiling). 21 1/4 x 30 1/2in (51.5 x 78cm) Estimate: $8,000 - 10,000 Footnote: Fabian de la Rosa was one of the leading masters of Philippine genre painting in the first quarter of the 20th century. Born in Manila, he studied under a number of local painters and won a gold medal at the St. Louis Exposition of 1904 for his painting of rice planting. In 1908, he won a scholarship to study in Europe, attending the Academie Julien in Paris and the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. He returned to the Philippines in 1910 to join the faculty of the School of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines, eventually becoming its director. Among his more famous students was his own nephew Fernando Armorsolo (1892-1972). De la Rosa not only painted landscapes and genre scenes but was a also well-respected portrait painter.

FABIAN DE LA ROSA (The Philippines 1869-1937) Ub Recuerdo De La Villa Borghese (A Rememberance Of The VillaBorghese) signed, dated and inscribed 'F. de la Rosa, Roma 1909' (upper left)and with dedication 'Al Dr. Bautista, su amigo, El autor (lowerleft) oil on canvas 17 x 22 in. (43 x 56 cm) Provenance Private Collection of Dr Ariston Bautista-Lin,Philippines. Lot Notes Swordsman and spinner of dreams, soldier and patriot, the artistFabian de la Rosa was perhaps one of the most fascinating and mostenigmatic figures of the turn-of-the-century triumvirate, formedalongside Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo. He was also the most 'Filipino' of the triumvirate and fiercelybelieved that art was a way of being Filipino, "an instrument ofdefiance and strength of character." As Juan Luna had become thetoast of Paris and Madrid in the 1880s, De la Rosa would completethe circle by being the third Fiilipino in just three decades toreturn in triumph to these artistic capitals by capturing theadulation of these cities' most coveted and exclusive salons in thepost-impressionist Twenties. During this period of unexpected freedom, De la Rosa started topursue and develop his own style of a brighter and morenaturalistic painting - a mixture of strongly drawn romanticizedfigures, firmly planted in a fictional pastoral countryside. Thisand his triumphs abroad influenced the Philippines' greatestpainters of the 20th century, from Fernando Amorsolo to AnitaMagsaysay-Ho. Both a painter of religious images (for his genteel uncle Simon deFlores) as well as a proletarian with the same steely background asAndres Bonifacio (orphaned in his early teens, sole supporter ofthree insistent sisters), De la Rosa made his first audacious forayinto Filipino art by capturing the attention of Juan Luna - notonly with the gentle serenity of his landscapes but also with hislethal skills as an expert in the espada y daga, an ancient form ofSpanish fencing perfected in the Philippines. De la Rosa found himself irresistibly drawn into the circle ofilustrados (the Filipino intelligentsia) who - by design orcircumstance - had converged on Manila in 1894 to set the stage forthe Philippine Revolution of 1896, which was to become the firstdemocratic movement in Asia. He became fencing master at the Lunas' Sala de Armas. In exchangefor his services, Juan Luna mentored the young blade in theEuropean painterly arts. Under the aegis of the Luna brothers, hewould meet key figures of the ensuing Philippine-AmericanWar. The American consul in Manila became a close friend and ApolinarioMabini was his student at the Sala de Armas. Dr. Ariston BautistaLin, a member of the tobacco monopoly whose fortune would help fundsuccessive movements for independence, would also become an admirerand benefactor. Coinciding with the untimely demise of the brother Luna at thestart of the Philippine-American War, De la Rosa enlisted with thePhilippine forces - perhaps being the only painter of note to do so- and was subsequently captured. He was released into the custodyof his old friend the American consul, who no doubt paved the wayto his participation in the St. Louis Exposition (World's Fair) of1904. At that monumental event, De la Rosa exhibited "La Siembra dePalay" (Planting Rice), which took the gold over Juan Luna's"Parisian Life", surpassing his mentor and perhaps one of thegreatest Filipino painters of the time. "Planting Rice", an idyllic scene of pure serenity, would chart thecourse for a veritable movement in Philippine art. Amorsolo'sinspiration for his own breathtaking landscapes would stem fromthis painting. In 1908 however, De la Rosa experienced a belated renaissance. Atthe age of 39 and at the zenith of his career, he was sent by Dr.Ariston Bautista Lin for art studies in Europe. The painting at hand, from the collection amassed by Dr. AristonBautista Lin, is a view from the Lake Garden of the Villa Borghese- which had just been opened a few years before to the public andwas still very much an artistic sensation. It captures a smalltemple dedicated to Aesculapius on an islet in the middle of one ofmany man-made lakes that dot the former residence of the17th-century Cardinal Scipione Caffarelli Borghese. On the surface, the painting is a luscious yet mysterious view of alake, partly obscured by foliage in the foreground. Enchantingdetails emerge as one is hauntingly drawn deeper and deeper into animage that is not as simple as it first appears. A rowboat loomsout of the water, then, a flash of white glints from behind theleaves - a piece of ancient statuary or perhaps a Roman ruinemerge. It is through this optical exercise that the thoughtful viewerturns to his own imagination and the circumstances of the painter.From De la Rosa's own past, the themes of vanished possibilities,betrayals, personal loss, rejuvenated hopes, and healing woundsbecome phantoms that flicker through this image. Dedicated to Dr. Bautista Lin and entitled "Un Recuerdo de la VillaBorghese (A Remembrance of the Villa Borghese)", it brings to minda lavish personal record from a grateful artist to an old friendand patron. It is also a homage to the painterly skills of his old friend JuanLuna - not only in style but in its unusual subject matter - beingperhaps one of the few extant examples of an important De la Rosawork set in Europe and not in the Philippines -- cementing Fabiande la Rosa's role as the critical link between the Filipino oldmasters of the 19th century and the creative motherlode of thecountry's most notable artists of the 20th century.

Fabian de la Rosa (The Philippines 1869-1937) In the Rice Field signed and dated 'F. de la Rosa Manila 1919' (lower left) oil on canvas 21¾ x 31½ in. (55.3 x 80 cm.) Painted in 1919