Juan Luna y Novicio (Badoc, Philippines, 1857 – Hong Kong, 1899) “Children’s Scene with Dispute and Kite' Oil on canvas. Signed 'LVNA'. (with the painter's characteristic use of the letter “V” instead of “U”) Relined. 22.5 x 32 cm. This charming jewel, a genre scene belongs to the most intimate and everyday facet of the work of Juan Luna, one of the most important figures of the late nineteenth-century Hispano-Filipino artistic world. Far removed from the grand historical compositions and nationalist subjects that established his international reputation, the painting reveals the artist’s interest in the direct observation of popular life and in those small episodes capable of conveying universal human emotions. The composition depicts a group of children in a rural setting. In the foreground, two boys are engaged in a heated physical dispute, while a third watches the scene without intervening. To the left, an elegant dog attentively observes the altercation, becoming a genuine secondary protagonist within the composition. Far from being a merely anecdotal figure, the animal provides visual balance and considerable expressive force, observing the scene with a dignity and serenity that contrast with the impulsive behaviour of the children. A careful reading of the painting reveals a particularly significant narrative detail. In the distance, standing upon a small rise in the landscape, a fourth child can be seen flying a kite. Barely perceptible at first glance, this figure appears to provide the key to the entire scene. Fragments of a broken kite visible on the ground suggest that the dispute between the protagonists has been triggered by an accident that occurred during play. The painting thus develops a complex narrative structure organised across several planes of depth. In the foreground appear the remains of the broken kite together with the protagonists of the conflict; in the middle ground unfolds the confrontation itself; while in the distance lies the origin of the action. This spatial construction demonstrates remarkable compositional intelligence and transforms the scene into something more than a simple costumbrista representation: it becomes a carefully constructed visual narrative, inviting the viewer to reconstruct the events for themselves. From a stylistic perspective, the work displays characteristics that relate it to Juan Luna’s formative and early mature years in Spain. During the 1880s, the artist developed a profound interest in the Spanish pictorial tradition and, in particular, in the work of Francisco de Goya. Various scholars have noted Luna’s admiration for the Aragonese master’s ability to depict popular scenes charged with humanity, psychological tension and social observation. In this respect, the present painting possesses a distinctly Goyaesque sensibility. Not through the direct adoption of specific compositional models, but through the emotional intensity invested in an apparently trivial incident. As in many of Goya’s works, conflict emerges from everyday life and becomes a reflection on human passions. The contained energy of the two boys engaged in confrontation, the spontaneity of their gestures and the direct observation of childhood behaviour recall Goya’s extraordinary ability to transform ordinary episodes into images of universal resonance. The agile and economical brushwork, the construction of forms through broad masses of light and shadow, and the earthy atmosphere that envelops the scene further reinforce this connection with the Spanish pictorial tradition of the nineteenth century. Far from pursuing meticulous academic finish, Luna concentrates on expression, movement and the psychological truth of his figures. Particularly noteworthy is the seated boy observing the dispute. His detached attitude introduces an almost theatrical dimension into the composition, transforming him into a kind of internal spectator who occupies the same role as the viewer standing before the painting. Through this device, the work acquires a psychological depth that is unusual in a composition of such modest scale. Still concealed beneath a substantial layer of surface dirt and oxidised varnish that obscures many details, the painting nevertheless reveals considerable pictorial quality and narrative richness, qualities that would undoubtedly be enhanced by a careful conservation treatment. Beyond its documentary interest, the work constitutes an extraordinary observation of childhood. Juan Luna does not depict heroes or historical figures, but emotions recognisable to any viewer: wounded pride, rivalry, friendship, curiosity and play. It is precisely in this ability to find the universal within the everyday that much of the painting’s modernity and enduring charm resides. As is often the case with the finest genre paintings, the scene appears to reveal new details each time it is contemplated. First we notice the boys engaged in conflict; then the attentive dog; later the child who silently observes; and finally, in the distance, the small figure flying a kite who quietly explains the entire story. The painting does not yield itself in a single glance: it gradually unveils its secrets over time.
JUAN LUNA Y NOVICIO Badoc, Philippines 1857 - Hong Kong 1899 MARIANO BENLLIURE Valencia 1862 - Madrid 1947 ANTONIO BENLLIURE GIL Valencia 1859 - Madrid 1930 FRANCISCO MASRIERA Barcelona 1842- 1902 Venice Oil on silk fan paper Signed by various artists Dimensions 310 x 630 mm
Acuarela sobre papel, firmada, fechada (1882) y localizada (Roma) en el ángulo inferior derecho. Importante obra inédita en el mercado, conservada hasta ahora en una colección particular. Representa una escena galante frente a lo que parece ser la costa napolitana. La pieza está fechada y localizada en Roma en 1882, año en que Juan Luna se encontraba inmerso en el estudio de la antigüedad clásica, profundizando en las obras de los grandes maestros del Renacimiento y el Barroco. Durante este periodo, el artista recibió la Paleta de Plata y ejecutó varias de las composiciones que le valdrían reconocimiento nacional e internacional, como Spoliarium, galardonada en la Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes de 1884. Esta última fue adquirida por el Estado español y posteriormente cedida al Gobierno de Filipinas en 1908. El dominio técnico que demuestra en esta acuarela de gran formato revela un exquisito ejemplo de su maestría y de su profundo conocimiento de la estética neoclásica de finales del siglo XIX
PROPERTY FROM THE AMBASSADOR PEDRO CONLU HERNAEZ COLLECTION La Infancia de la Naturaleza (The Childhood of Nature) signed (lower right) titled (upper left) "LA INFANCIA D. LA NAT. IZA" oil on canvas 48" x 37 1/2" (122 cm x 95 cm) PROVENANCE Acquired in Spain in the 1960’s Among the considerable gems of Juan Luna paintings amassed by Ambassador Pedro Conlu Hernaez — the country’s envoy to Spain from 1960 to 1962 — was the justly famous “La Belleza ya la Esclava Ciega (The Beauty and the Blind Slave)” after a Pompeiian legend. Dating from 1887, it was reproduced as an engraving in the Ilustracion Artistica de Barcelona in March of the same year. Hernaez also scooped up a countryside scene painted by Luna in Bilbao where he sought refuge from the stresses of the year 1892 as well as a series of happier paintings of his wife Paz picking flowers in the Bois de Boulougne and captured in slumber in its woods, recently discovered to be titled “Tentacion”, as confirmed by the photographic archives of Don Alfonso Ongpin. “La Infancia” is of a far darker beauty as these works and cleaves closer to the raw emotion of the “Spoliarium”. In “La Infancia”, an archangel is caught in the light of a rising sun — its rays outlined in a bold impasto — emerging from the chaos of creation. Its wings stiff and head covered in a warrior’s helmet, this divine creature kneels in front of a child who appears to be bathed in blood, streaked in crimson and with such strokes that have become distinctive to Juan Luna. He kneels in homage but with his arms outstretched in protection, ready to take the youngster in his arms. It features a far looser style of painting but still has the same dramatic academic themes as his greatest masterpieces. “La Infancia” closes the chapter on the storied collection of the political lion Amb. Conlu Hernaez who became an unwitting culture-bearer of his generation with his various important discoveries of Juan Luna works.
Claro de Luna en la Laguna de Venecia (Moonlight on the Lagoon of Venice) signed, dated and inscribed “Lvna Venecia 87” (lower right) oil on canvas 20" x 49 1/4" (51 cm x 125 cm) PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the Artist by the 1st Conde de Romanones, Alvaro de Figueroa. Today, it is difficult to grasp how firmly Juan Luna and the other Filipino ilustrados of the 19th century once stood at the core of Spanish art and politics. The rupture of 1898, when Spain lost the Philippines after the Spanish-American War, pushed the two countries apart in culture and identity, and Luna’s name — once most famous in Spain — faded into obscurity on the peninsula. It is now an opportune moment to examine the studios and friendships that first shaped Luna’s reputation — ties that continued to influence art and politics even after his death. Juan Luna’s artistic journey began under the strict supervision of Agustín Sáez, the headmaster of Manila’s Escuela de Dibujo y Pintura on Cabildo. Sáez was a discípulo (student) of José de Madrazo, the director of Madrid’s Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, and he upheld a rigid curriculum rooted in 17th-century Spanish art, leaving little room for creative freedom. After what was likely a tumultuous relationship with Sáez, Lorenzo Guerrero, who had mentored Luna, persuaded his parents to send him to Spain. Art critic and painter Aguilar Cruz observed, “It is probable that Luna, never known for meekness, had offended his teachers by his refusal to submit to their artistic doctrines.” After leaving Manila, Luna enrolled at Madrid’s Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, where he studied color and composition under Federico de Madrazo, the son of José de Madrazo. As director of the academy, Federico imposed the same rigid, traditional style as his father. Unsurprisingly, Luna’s stay under Federico lasted barely a year. In 1878 he left Madrid for Rome in the company of Spanish painter Alejo Vera, his new mentor and the person he called his “second father” away from home. Frustrated by rigid academic doctrines in Madrid, Luna found freedom in Rome’s vibrant artistic community of Spanish and international artists at the Circolo Artistico Internazionale. Following his success at the Exposición de Bellas Artes in 1881, where he won a Medalla de segunda clase (silver medal) for the Death of Cleopatra, his studio on Via Margutta became a gathering place for admirers eager to witness his creative process as he prepared his next masterpiece, Spoliarium. According to a November 1, 1903, article in The Sun, King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Italy paid him an unexpected visit at his studio. In March 1884, Mariano Benlliure captured a memorable scene in which Luna presented Spoliarium to the king at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni. Among those who became part of Luna’s Roman circle was the young law student Álvaro de Figueroa y Torres, who, after completing his studies in Bologna, spent a season in Rome before returning to Madrid. In his memoirs, he recalls lively days shared with Luna; José, Juan Antonio and Mariano Benlliure, whose studio was adjacent to Luna’s; and with the young artist and future politician, Mateo Silvela, son of the influential senator Manuel Silvela y de Le Vielleuze. The friendships formed in that Roman interlude proved lasting. Silvela’s father would later be appointed as the Spanish ambassador to France and would be a key figure in acting as Luna’s intermediary for financial advances on the commission for the Battle of Lepanto. During his early days in Paris, Luna worked tirelessly on the Senate commission for it, a painting intended to be displayed opposite Francisco Pradilla’s Rendición de Granada in the Salón de Conferencias of the Spanish Senate. As Juan Luna’s artistic journey in Europe continued, the circle that had gathered on Via Margutta expanded its influence beyond the studios of Rome. What began as a bohemian brotherhood would become a network of influence in Madrid’s corridors of power. Álvaro de Figueroa y Torres, the young law student who once lingered in Luna’s studio, rose to prominence in the Liberal Party. He became the 1st Count of Romanones in 1893 and served three times as prime minister of Spain between 1912 and 1919. His ascent was marked by sharp political instincts and a commanding presence. Despite a childhood carriage accident that left him with a limp, often exaggerated by caricaturists, it became a distinguishing feature, making him instantly recognizable. His political opponent, whom he mentions often in his memoirs, was the Conservative leader Francisco Silvela y de Le Vielleuze, brother of the more liberal Manuel Silvela, who had defended Luna. Romanones wrote: “Yet, drawing strength from weakness, I faced the wrath of Cánovas and Silvela, and by a significant majority, victory was granted to me.” Incidentally, his older brother José was Francisco’s brother-in-law, as both had married sisters: María Rosario and Amalia Loring y Heredia. Alongside this long political career Romanones was also active in the arts: he directed the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando for nearly forty years, the longest tenure in the institution’s history, joined the Prado board, and commissioned or supported leading painters and sculptors. Perhaps due to the friendship that had formed in Rome, Mariano Benlliure was able to count him among his most constant patrons. Several years after Luna’s passing, in a letter to Alfonso de Aguilar, the private secretary of Queen María Cristina, dated May 29, 1906, Benlliure recounted how Count Romanones had visited his studio to review the bust he was sculpting of Princess Victoria Eugenia. Romanones assured him that the likeness was exceptional, stating that it was as accurate as if it had been sculpted from life. In 1907 he asked Benlliure to design a full ceramic cycle for the dining room of his new Madrid townhouse. Romanones rejected the final drawings only because the playful nudes might scandalize guests. In 1911, as president of the Spanish Congress of Deputies, Romanones commissioned Mariano Benlliure for the statue of Emilio Castelar for the Congress. In 1929, Archer M. Huntington commissioned Benlliure to create a bronze of the Count of Romanones for the Hispanic Society of America, as part of a small series depicting leading Spaniards from the reign of Alfonso XIII. He died in Madrid in 1950, leaving a large archive and an art collection that has been gradually dispersed by his heirs. From that cramped warren of studios on Via Margutta emerged lives that would reshape both art and politics. Those Roman days were no footnote but the hinge on which destinies turned. A few formative years in Rome wove a network so durable that, decades later, and even after Luna’s death, it still secured commissions, shaped policies, and kept Filipino genius woven into the fabric of Spain’s artistic life The highly evocative ‘Claro de Luna en la Laguna de Venecia’ — featuring bragagnas, the traditional Venetian fishing boats, floating magically between sea and sky, on the city’s lagoon — opens the doors to two important events in Juan Luna’s life. The first was at the very beginning of his life as a boy entering the world of adventure on the high seas; and the other at the apex of his career, intertwined with his successive triumphs at the Madrid Salons and his marriage to the heiress Paz Pardo de Tavera in late 1886. That honeymoon was spent in Venice where he would also create “Hymen, oh Hymenee”, Luna’s long-lost masterpiece that would finally come to Manila 134 years after it was painted. Like ‘Hymenee’, it would also symbolize Juan Luna’s acceptance in the highest echelons not just of Filipino society but also his friendship with the most influential members of the Spanish aristocracy. The first Conde of Romanones, Alvaro de Figueroa, would recall in his autobiography ‘Notas de Una Vida (Notes to a Life), 1868 -1912, how he would make the acquaintance of Juan Luna in Rome, in the artists’ colony on Via Margutta. Here, he met the Benlliure brothers, familiars of the King of Spain Alfonso XIII — and Mateo Silvela, all artists. The Romanones and the Silvelas would later be joined in marriage and the Prime Minister xx Silvela would be one of the staunchest champions of Luna’s royal commission of ‘The Battle of Lepanto.’ It is a little-known fact that Juan Luna enrolled in the Escuela Nautica de Manila, which had been established in 1820 a few years after the end of the Galleon Trade. What is even more astonishing is that he did so at the age of 12, the very minimum age to gain entrance into the school and a requirement to make sure that prospective students knew how to read and write in Spanish. Thus, in 1869, Juan Luna entered the school along with his older brother Manuel Andres, who was 13 years old. For the precocious, intrepid Luna, it was apparently just a device entirely of his own making to find his way out of Manila and make his way in the world. Biographer E. Arsenio Manuel would write, “After finishing the primera enseñanza in 1869, he left the Ateneo Municipal de Manila and enrolled in the Escuela Nautica, not to pursue a naval career to be sure, but perhaps to accustom himself and his parents with the pangs of separation. After finishing the theoretical course, Juan and Manuel learned practical navigation on a ship which plied the China Sea and the Indian Ocean, touching such ports as Hongkong, Amoy (China), Singapore, Batavia (Indonesia), and Colombo (Ceylon).” Jose Rizal would later reveal that ‘besides widening their horizons and experience, Manuel, who was to become a violinist later, heard harmonies in the waves and Juan saw combinations of light, tones and colors.’ E. Arsenio Manuel would also write, “While these voyages were but a means to an end, he never abandoned his golden dream of one day becoming a painter. While his boat was at anchor in Manila Bay or at the quay, he took drawing lessons under Lorenzo Guerrero.” It would take him five years to receive the certificate of piloto de altos mares tercer clase (pilot of the high seas third class). Immediately after that milestone, and at the age of 17, he would be accepted in the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura in Manila. For one reason or another, he would leave the academy and strike out to Madrid in 1877, with his beloved brother Manuel. Juan would enroll at the Real Academia de las Bellas Artes de San Fernando and begin his unstoppable trajectory to the stratosphere of acclaim. In just one year, he would meet his mentor Alejo Vera, move to Rome, fall into the company of the Benlliure brothers and Mateo Silvela — and meet the Conde de Romanones — in the Via Margutta, sharing quarters, studios and adventures. “Claro de Luna en la Laguna de Venecia” could very well be an allegory of Juan Luna’s life at this point — perceived by the Spanish press as to be walking on water and on his way to the heavens, after winning the gold medal for the Spoliarium in 1884. The bragagnas depicted in the painting take their name from the peculiarly shaped nets used for a kind of sidetrawling on the lagoon. These nets and their boats were being produced as late as the 1940s, but sadly their distinctive shapes, outlined with the white stripes as seen in this canvas, can now only be found in the Museo Storico Navale of Venice or the Venetian naval museum. The vessels are built to allow them to fish in the waters of the lagoon which can be a single meter shallow in some parts and no more than ten in others. They are depicted moored around a line of timber pilings of strong oak, which also form the foundations of the city known as La Serenessima. They provide a sense of strength and a certain brooding formality to the fluid forms of the shapes of the vessels. Luna is able to paint the boats with extraordinary accuracy, their masts, sails, rudders, and nets — all are captured with both the detailed eye and sensibility of a sailor. Ironically, seascapes are a rarity for Juan Luna, unlike the dreamy horizons of his contemporary Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo who had a fascination for water. Luna, however, imbues it with his own perspective of the working man — he was among the first social realists of his age, capturing gypsies, flower sellers, steel workers. Here, in a few elegant but vital and tiny strokes, he captures fishermen unloading their catch in huge baskets, the others look out solitarily to sea. Because of the space and distance from the viewer, the boats appear suspended in both time and space against the clouds and waves. Importantly, “Claro de Luna” foretells Luna’s next most important work, “La Batalla de Lepanto” (The Battle of Lepanto), the most important naval battle of Christendom, which commemorated the triumph of the Holy League against the Ottoman Empire. Philip II (who the Philippines would be named after and was named “the most Catholic of kings”) would lead the victory, alongside the Republic of Venice and other states, against Suleiman the Magnificent. King Alfonso XIII would give Luna this commission, a signal honor to satisfy the public clamor that he be properly recognized for the beauty and power of “Spoliarium.” Born in the Rockland County hamlet of Pearl River, New York, Mary Aline Dexter Griffith was born on 23 May 1923, though some records state 1920. Her lineage was middle class. Her father, William, manufactured printing press equipment at a plant owned by her grandfather and sold real estate and insurance on the side. Her mother, the former Marie Dexter, was said to have descended from the Pilgrims. She graduated with a degree in Literature, History, and Journalism from the College of Mount Vincent, a Roman Catholic school run by the Sisters of Charity in the Bronx, New York. A fetching young lady, she worked as a model for the Viennese-born fashion designer, Hattie Carnegie, in Manhattan. But Aline wanted more excitement in life than just looking pretty. It was World War II and she sought to serve her country overseas but was told that she was too young. Not long after, she went on a blind date with a member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA. She was recruited and trained as a secret agent and was sent to Madrid as a code clerk deciphering messages at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, a city then teeming with moles, spies, and Nazis. Her code name was “Tiger” and she posed as a socialite employed by American oil companies. In one of the socials she attended in Madrid, she met and caught the eye of Luis de Figueroa y Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno. He bore the Spanish title, El Conde de Quintanilla, and later inherited the title, El Conde de Romanones. He was a painter and the grandson of Alvaro de Figueroa y Torres, the first El Conde de Romanones, who served as Prime Minister of Spain three times from 1912-1918, Senate President, Mayor of Madrid, cabinet minister, and president of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. (This was the very same school that Luna attended.) His father, Luis, El Conde de Figueroa, was a polo player who participated as member of the Spanish team at the 1924 Paris Olympics. An heir to one of the great Spanish fortunes at the time with titles on the side, the younger Luis was a prize catch for Aline. Luis and Aline were married in Madrid in 1947 in a wedding attended by Luis’ grandfather and members of the Spanish nobility and was covered by local newspapers in Pearl River, New York with the headline, “Her Romance in Madrid Makes NY Girl Countess.” From then on, Aline, La Condesa de Quintanilla and later La Condesa de Romanones, made her steady ascent as one of the members of international society. Always well-coiffed and impeccably dressed, her fabled life as an international jetsetter was widely covered in glossy magazines like Vogue and Hola and was photographed partying with celebrity friends such as Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor and film stars, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, and Ava Gardner; watching a bullfight in Seville with US First Lady Jackie Kennedy and the Duquesa de Alba; and posing for fashion spreads in fashion magazines in her homes in Spain and her Park Avenue apartment in New York. One of her good friends was Philippine First Lady Imelda R. Marcos and was said to have once visited Manila as her guest. But despite a promise to her husband that she would stop her espionage activities upon their marriage, she continued her life as an undercover spy for many years. As she once told the Los Angeles Times, posing as a socialite before she became one was a good cover. “With that, nobody’s going to think you’re doing anything worthwhile, except putting on your make-up or something.” she said. She wrote about her life as an undercover spy in a series of best-selling books entitled, The Spy Wore Red, The Spy Went Dancing, The Spy Wore Silk; and The End of an Epoch. Writing in The New York Times Book Review, critic Michael Gross labeled her genre as “café espionage.” While most dismissed most of the exploits she wrote about as pure fiction, Aline insisted that her stories “are all based in truth.” Charles Pinck, the president of the O.S.S. Society wrote of the countess in an E-Mail quoted in her New York Times obituary: “She epitomized why it was said that O.S.S. stood for ‘Oh So Social,’ as many of its members were drawn from the Social Register. Aline passed away in Madrid in 2017 and was survived by her three sons, Alvaro, Luis, and Miguel, and thirteen grandchildren.
JUAN LUNA Y NOVICIO (Badoc, Philippines, 1857 - Hong Kong, 1899). "Academy with model holding a pergola". Black pencil on paper. Signed in the lower right corner. Attached certificate issued by José María Quesada Valera belonging to the Institute of Historical and Artistic Studies. Measurements: 65.8 x 45.6 cm; 86 x 74 cm (frame). The academic drawing that we now tender is a good example of the way of working and perfecting "of a young artist such as Juan Luna y Novicio was at that time. The male nude with his back to us in this interesting drawing is an example of a kind of natural posing, in Rome", according to José María Quesada, author of the certificate that accompanies the work. He continues, "The model is completely nude, something unusual in the academic practice of Madrid, where it was normal for the models to have some kind of garment covering their genitals and buttocks (sometimes the painter simply left the hole unpainted); on the contrary, a significant number of academic nudes executed in Rome did show a full nude, as in this case." As for his pose, Quesada states "The gesture would evoke the moment when a gondolieri stirs the pergola in the silt to move the boat. In this way, Juan Luna has achieved one of the most emblematic postures in Western art: the posture of a Polyclitus statue, like that of the Doriphorus." A Filipino painter and watercolorist, Juan Luna trained at the Ateneo de la Compañía de Manila. Later he entered the Academy of Fine Arts of the same city. In 1877 he obtained a scholarship from the Manila City Council that allowed him to move to Madrid to further his training, specifically at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts. In the Spanish capital he became a student of Alejo Vera, and with him he traveled to Rome when the latter was appointed director of the Spanish Academy in that city. During these years, Luna also visited other Italian cities, learning first-hand about the great works of the Renaissance. He later settled in Paris, where he opened his own workshop. Once fully established, he received numerous important institutional commissions, among them the one he received in 1887 from the Spanish Senate, a canvas entitled "The Battle of Lepanto", destined for the conference hall. The Ministry of Overseas Territories commissioned another work from him, a composition representing Spain and the Philippines. Luna also took part in numerous art exhibitions and official expositions, being awarded a second medal for "Cleopatra" in the National Fine Arts Exhibition of 1881 and a first medal for "Spoliarium" in the National Exhibition of 1884. He also showed his works abroad, and in fact he sent his canvases to the Paris Salon of 1886, where he was awarded the third medal. Two years later, in 1888, he won the second medal at the Universal Exhibition in Barcelona. The following year he participated in the Universal Exhibition in Paris, where he was awarded the third medal. Influenced by the work of Rosales, he developed a realistic painting, although marked by a broad brushstroke and unraveled that brings him closer to the impressionism of the late nineteenth century, especially in his later years. With regard to his subject matter, after his trip to Rome, he will deal especially with themes of Classical Antiquity, although in his last stage he will work more and more on contemporary scenes. Juan Luna's works are currently represented in important artistic centers such as the Prado Museum, the National Museum of the Philippines, the City Hall of Cadiz, the Captaincy General of Seville, the Government Delegation of the Basque Country, the Jaume Morera Museum of Modern Art in Lleida, the Victor Balaguer Museum Library in Vilanova i la Geltrú, etc.
Juan Luna y Novicio (1857-1899) Photograph, The Death of Cleopatra (La Muerte de Cleopatra) Signed and dedicated “Al distinguido artista y amigo F. Rodoreda, J. Luna, Roma, 1883” (To the distinguished artist and friend, F. Rodoreda, J. Luna, Rome 1883.) Above the dedication, a handwritten notation adding the date of the painting may be seen clearly with the numbers “881”, completing the date 1881 when it was painted. A second handwritten note at the reverse says “ La Muerte de Cleopatra estuvo colgado en el Palacio del Senado de Madrid, 5/18/89” (The Death of Cleopatra hangs in the Palace of the Senate in Madrid.) 14 1/2" x 18" (37 cm x 46 cm) Provenance: Vue Gallery Signed Souvenir of Luna’s Breakthrough Painting, La Muerte de Cleopatra, Dedicated to the Man Who Arranged His Scholarship To the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Death of Cleopatra (La Muerte de Cleopatra) would open the door to Juan Luna’s fame and fortune as the Philippines’ first internationally recognized painter.' His accomplishments would be described thus, “Luna won his first major prize in Europe, a Second Class or Silver medal at Spain´s 1881 Exposición General de Bellas Artes (General Exhibition of Fine Arts), with this painting. Also known as the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes, Spain´s national art exhibition took place every two to three years from 1856 to 1968, and hewed to the standards of Spain´s premier art school, the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando) in Madrid. While Luna had studied there, he made this painting after settling in Rome, having followed his teacher and mentor, the Spanish artist Alejo Vera, from Madrid.” It dates from Luna’s Roman period which produced the ‘Spoliarium’ which cemented his place in artistic history when it won for him a gold, or the supreme prize, in 1884. ‘F. Rodoreda’ was a forgotten Spanish artist who lived in the Philippines. According to Mr. Zeidrick J Cudilla , writing in Old Iloilo, “The artistic genius was FRANCISCO DE PAULA RODOREDA, whose career as a sculptor was recognized in the marblework of the three altars of the now-destroyed Iglesia de San Ignacio de Loyola in Manila (p. 187, Reseña histórica de la inauguración de la Iglesia de San Ignacio de Loyola, 1889). The Spanish bibliophile Wenceslao Retana wrote of him as "el primer marmolista que ha habido en Filipinas” (the best sculptor in marble that ever was in the Philippines.”) Furthermore, Cudilla noted, “Aside from being a sculptor, Rodoreda served in many capacities in the public sphere such as being a 'regidor' (councilor) of the Ayuntamiento de Manila, 'tesorero' (treasurer) of the Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais, and editor-in-chief of ‘Boletin de la Camara de Comercio de Manila’.” What was important is that Rodoreda would be instrumental in giving Juan Luna the grant he needed to remain in Spain to pursue his art and his fame. The ‘Sociedad Economica’ (or ‘Economic Society of the Friends of the Country’, composed of wealthy sponsors) as well as the Ayuntamiento (or City Council of Manila were important forces not only in the administration of the Manila Academy of Art — but also financed the scholarships for Filipino artists to study in Madrid or Europe. Art historian Luciano P.R. Santiago wrote that it was at the instance of “Regidor Francisco de Rodoreda that Luna received the grant from the Ayuntamiento after he won a silver medal at the Madrid salon.” Spanning 1881 to 1885 — or Luna’s highly productive Roman period — this allowed him to create the Spoliarium and many other works. This keepsake of the ‘Death of Cleopatra’ with Luna’s affectionate dedication confirms this relationship and the artist’s gratitude for the assistance and support.
PROPERTY FROM THE AMBASSADOR PEDRO CONLU HERNAEZ COLLECTION La Majordoma signed (lower right) ca. 1890 oil on canvas 20" x 18" (51 cm x 46 cm) PROVENANCE: Acquired by Amb. Hernaez in the 1960s, Madrid, Spain At the height of his fame at the turn of the 1890s, Juan Luna decided to take a divergent path. When his lyrical Hymen, oh Hyménée! won the bronze medal at the Paris Exposition of 1889 despite it being submitted as hors concours, it seemed that Luna had no other way but up, considering that he had just participated—and won at the world's biggest exposition in the world's magnificent art capital. He had also been accorded recognition for his artistic talents and was warmly received by the European monarchs of the time, including King Alfonso XII of Spain and King Umberto and his wife, Queen Marguerita, of Italy. However, this was also a time when the Propaganda Movement further strengthened with the establishment of La Solidaridad, peopled by Rizal, Del Pilar, Jaena, and the two Luna brothers, among others. It would publish its own newspaper of the same name, with the first issue coming out on February 15, 1899. The Propaganda Movement, although reformist in form, was revolutionary and radical in essence. Juan Luna as a Painter of the Common People Luna’s Social Realist Period of 1890 - 1893 by ADRIAN MARANAN “Despite access to the head of the table, Luna would eventually find himself more concerned with those without a seat. If 1872 was formative in Rizal’s nationalism, 1889 can be viewed as a decisive year for Luna. Towards the end of his life, Luna became more active as a politician for the fledgling Philippine government after Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed independence from Spain in 1898. But it was in the City of Lights, between splendor and struggle, that Luna’s own nascent expression of nationalism was born.” —MARINELLA ANDREA C. MINA, “OF SPLENDOR & STRUGGLE: THE FIN-DE-SIÈCLE AND THE WORLD OF JUAN LUNA,” ESSAY PUBLISHED IN THE MONOGRAPH “SPLENDOR, JUAN LUNA: PAINTER AS HERO,” 2023 The Beginnings of Luna’s Social Realist Period I n a correspondence with Javier Gomez de la Serna dated May 26, 1889, Luna revealed that his painting was becoming more inclined to a kind of everyday realism rather than his tried and tested formula of romantic realism. "[My] painting is [becoming] more realistic each day," Luna wrote. The end that has been sought has not yet been reached, but the tendency to an intangible reality, there is no doubt, and do not think it is a brutal and disgusting reality. No, a sublime reality in a new form." (English translation by Dr. Ambeth Ocampo, in his essay "Juan Luna and the Pursuit of Greatness," published in the book "Splendor, Juan Luna: Painter as Hero") In 1890, Luna corresponded with Rizal about a "large" painting he was doing depicting a "modern and simple" subject. Titled Monjas Francesas y su Rebaño (French Nuns and their Flock), which showed an orphanage along a Parisian street, the piece would become a significant turning point in Luna's career, as it would manifest his sympathies and affinities with the ordinary people. He would begin to document everyday Parisian living, focusing on the proletarians and the greater population of the impoverished masses. As a Filipino expatriado in the French capital, Luna saw the oppressive conditions of the working class under industrial capitalism (i.e. the widening inequality as profits from production were favored over humane working conditions) as reflections of the injustices committed by the Spanish to his fellow Filipinos. Luna would join the Salon of 1890, in which a new group, the Société Nationale des BeauxArts, held its first exhibition organized and led by Puvis de Chavannes. The Société rejected the overt orthodoxy of the older Société des Artistes Français. Members of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts were influenced by the ideas of Gustave Courbet, the French painter who rejected Romanticism and led the Realism movement in the 1840s and held as its battle cry the depiction of reality as it is. Courbet was a supporter of the Paris Commune of 1871, in which he also participated. The Paris Commune was a short-lived revolutionary government led by the French working class that aimed to establish a socialist republic governed by proletarians and put an end to the hegemony of the repressive state. The Salon of 1890, reported The Art Amateur, an American magazine "devoted to art in the household," had as its "great feature… the delineation of contemporary life—genre painting, as it is called." Continues the magazine, "But, if we sometimes find a sincere and personal effort to render the living reality, it is not so agreeable to notice that a majority of the artists chose by preference scenes of rags and misery, surgical operations, and "human documents" of a like nature." Luna felt rapport with the socialist-influenced Société, writing to Rizal, "I belong to the dissident Salon." At this time, Luna fully assimilated himself into the French social realist movement. He submitted an entry in the 1890 Salon—held at the historic Champs-de-Mars, titled Le Chiffonnier / El Trapero (The Ragpicker), depicting an old man burdened by a rag basket on his shoulders. The following year, he submitted three works: Les Ignorés, Héroes Anónimos, and Desherados (Disinherited), which depicted a funeral procession. Of Les Ignorés, he wrote to Rizal: “To my painting of the funeral, I gave the title Les Ignorés, and as you must have noted, I now give attention to the humble and disinherited.” These three works earned him the respect of the Société and gave him honors, including exclusive membership in the group, which also accorded him the privilege of sitting in screening committees and in the jury for painting competitions. Luna said to Rizal that this milestone was "an appointment I did not expect." He was also granted the special privilege of submitting as many as ten paintings without undergoing the thorough jury process. Through his admission to the Société, Luna was not anymore an outsider; he became an exclusive member of a prime art circle in a city revered as the very center of artistic gravity. It was in this milieu that Luna painted La Majordoma. The work at hand depicts an old majordome, the head servant of a French household. Luna endows the lady with dignified elegance through his smooth brushwork and muted shades of grey, a color traditionally associated with wisdom and richness. The work comes from a series of Luna paintings, in which he manifested his preference for depicting the affairs of the masses' everyday living and the unwanted consequences of the Industrial Revolution on workers’ and people’s rights, as opposed to the romantic grandiosity of portraying defining events and personalities in history and gaining inspiration from the literature and art of the Classical Era of Greek and Roman splendor. Like the narrative of the people's history or "history from below," Luna at this time deeply identified with an "art from below." There exists a thematically similar work titled Head of a Laborer, also painted in 1890 and now in the collection of the Lopez Memorial Museum. Luna’s social realist period as a reflection of his Filipino Nationalist Ideals In this period of stylistic and thematic change for Luna, he found an affinity in reading socialist-themed literature, such as Les Misérables by Victor Hugo and Le Socialisme Contemporain, an anthology edited by Emile de Laveleye and reproduced in its pages the writings of none other than the great Karl Marx and prominent Catholic socialists. In a letter to Rizal, Luna wrote that he had been searching for "a book stressing the miseries of contemporary society, a kind of Divine Comedy, with a Dante taking a walk through shops where one can hardly breathe, and where he would see men, children, and women in the most wretched state imaginable." Luna had also been thinking of a subject for a monumental painting that would encapsulate his newfound ideals. He asked Rizal, “What book would you advise me to read to inspire me? By someone who has written against this naked materialism and this infamous exploitation of the poor, the struggle of the rich with the wretched! I am looking for a subject worthy to be developed on a canvas of eight meters.” Luna would also share with Rizal about his visit to a French iron foundry, where he encountered the miserable conditions of the workers. He wrote, "I was there three or four minutes, and it seemed that I had swallowed sand and dust all my life. They penetrated my nose, mouth, and eyes…and to think that those wretches breathed coal and dust twelve hours of each day! I believe that they are infallibly condemned to death, and that it is a crime to abandon such people." The sight strengthened Luna's empathy for the proletarian class. La Majordoma, a social realist portrait of a French Proletarian I t was in this milieu that Luna painted La Majordoma. The work at hand depicts an old majordome, the head servant of a French household. Luna endows the lady with dignified elegance through his smooth brushwork and muted shades of grey, a color traditionally associated with wisdom and richness. The work comes from a series of Luna paintings, in which he manifested his preference for depicting the affairs of the masses' everyday living and the unwanted consequences of the Industrial Revolution on workers’ and people’s rights, as opposed to the romantic grandiosity of portraying defining events and personalities in history and gaining inspiration from the literature and art of the Classical Era of Greek and Roman splendor. Like the narrative of the people's history or "history from below," Luna at this time deeply identified with an "art from below." There exists a thematically similar work titled Head of a Laborer, also painted in 1890 and now in the collection of the Lopez Memorial Museum. Luna's social realist period would climax in the now-lost masterpiece Peuple et Rois (People and Kings), painted from 1891 to 1892 and portrayed the desecration of the French royal tombs in the Cathedral of St. Denis by the revolutionaries of the French Revolution of 1830 (the "Second French Revolution"). In a way, Peuple et Rois echoed the anti-friar sentiments of the ilustrados. Although European in form and subject, Luna espoused and imparted in La Majordoma a sense of dignity to his fellow natives in the Philippine motherland, which had been deemed morally, culturally, socially, and ethnically inferior to their peninsular counterparts. In these European images of the working class, and with an art further strengthened by his recognition in the European expositions, Luna hoped to endow his fellow countrymen with the utmost sense of national pride, especially within their historically crucial milieu of the Filipinos' endeavor in the formation of a shared national identity that is crucial for the struggle for eventual independence.
The Old Man signed (lower right), Rome, undated, c . 1878 - 1885 charcoal on paper 23 1/2” x 18” (60 cm x 46 cm) PROVENANCE: Heirs of Don Alejo Vera Private Collection, Manila León Gallery, The Spectacular Mid-Year Auction 2017, Makati City, 6 October 2017, Lot 83 *THIS LOT IS SOLD TO BENEFIT THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL MANILA In 1878, Juan Luna decamped from Spain, feeling that he had learned all that he could from the Royal Academy of the Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid — and to follow his professor, Alejo Vera y Estaca (1834 - 1921) to Rome. Alejo Vera had, in fact, “obtained a position at the newly-created ‘Spanish Academy’ in Rome” and furthermore, had quite a few portrait commissions awaiting him. He recruited his star pupil Luna to join him in the Italian capital. From Vera, Luna would learn a fascination for Pompeii; (many of these paintings from this locale are now at the Philippine National Museum.) More importantly, he would be influenced by the refined historical style of his mentor, that would allow him to eventually best the European salons’ criteria for classical themes with his works “Death of Cleopatra” and “Spoliarium.” Luna would take up residence in Rome at 33 Via Margutta, in the artist’s colony in that address. His neighbors and friends were other artists and they would sketch and draw the many colorful characters in this bohemian neighborhood. This charcoal portrait of the old man is signed, “Luna, Roma” and at the top catalogued with “Juan Luna y Novicio, Pensionado”, the usual description to works submitted by Luna as part of the conditions of his scholarship from the Manila Academia. (Luna’s scholarship provided for a year at the Madrid academy and a second year anywhere in Europe; in Luna’s case, Rome.) More interestingly, on the reverse, is another unfinished portrait of a gentleman and beneath it the words “Propiedad de mi abuelo Alejo Vera” (Property of my grandfather Alejo Vera), and an unreadable signature, P —. The sketch’s features happen to have a resemblance to Vera. An equally tantalizing connection is to a photo of Luna, circa 1889 to 1890. By this time, Luna had become the toast of the European salons. Luna arrived in Paris in 1885, fresh from his triumph for ‘Spoliarium’ at the Madrid exposition the previous year. He had painted that opus while in Rome, where he had spent over 5 years soaking in the atmosphere of the Eternal City and perfecting the vivid style that would make him famous. In the photograph of his studio is ‘Aesop’, c. 1881, hanging between an elaborately-curtained door and a suit of armor. The original ‘Aesop’ (c. 1638) was commissioned by King Philip IV of Spain for his hunting lodge but by the 1800s hung in the Prado, where Luna would have gone to study these and other works by Diego Velasquez. To the left of Luna is another painting of the Roman wedding ritual, ‘Hymen o Hymenee’, created in 1889 and entered in the Universal Exposition of Paris of the same year. (It received a bronze medal.) On the easel is a portrait of a white-haired and bearded gentleman. It is a finished work, having been set into a ornate frame. One can read his signature on the bottom right, less readable is a longer dedication, which suggests this painting may be one of a friend. The work at hand is perhaps a study for this portrait; united by Luna’s verve and painstaking eye for detail.
Untitled signed (lower right) watercolor on paper 4 1/2” x 7 1/2” (11 cm x 19 cm) PROVENANCE: Estate of the artist; Andres Luna de San Pedro Mrs. Grace Luna de San Pedro Mrs. Elizabeth Troster Mrs. Ruth Francis Mario Alcantara (The majority of the collection was purchased by Far East Bank and Trust Company and later on donated to the National Museum of the Philippines) León Gallery, The Magnificent September Auctions 2018, Makati City, 8 September 2018, Lot 19. Juan Luna’s watercolor sketches, even in its simplicity, belies the vigor he has as a realist. Like many artists, Luna worked in quick, random sketches, eager to jot down the simplest of landscapes on sketch pads and scrap papers, and notes on the interplay of light and shadow, such as he has done in this untitled piece. With the horizon clear in the distance, Luna portrays a calm afternoon in the plaza square, a beautiful image that could be the nexus of a full- blown concept, event, painting, or sculpture. The whole corpus of Luna’s sketches includes a magnificent view of late 19th-century Europe where even the seemingly random figures are emblematic of their social status. As E. Aguilar Cruz wrote in 1975: “Even Luna’s most casual oil sketches during his Paris period cannot conceal the vigor of his style as a realist.” (Hannah Valiente)
Juan Luna Y Novicio, Philippine, French, 1857 to 1899, watercolor on paper, portrait painting. The painting depicts a woman in a long white dress. Additionally inscribed, on the backside. Signed lower left. Matted and framed. Juan Luna Y Novicio is known for Aristocratic female figures, portraits, nudes and landscape painting. Juan Luna de San Pedro y Novicio Ancheta was a Filipino painter, sculptor and a political activist of the Philippine Revolution during the late 19th century. He became one of the first recognized Philippine artists. One of a kind artwork.
Juan Luna y Novicio (Filipino, 1857-1899), portrait, pencil on paper, signed L/R and dated 1882, 24" x 18", framed 27" x 21". Provenance: Westbury, New York collection.
Ecce Homo (“Behold the Man”) or El Cristo de la Paciencia (The Christ of Patience) signed (lower right) ca. 1896 - 1897 oil on canvas 43" x 27" (109 cm x 69 cm) PROVENANCE A gift from the artist to the Spanish auditor-general Don Nicolas de la Peña upon his release from prison in Fort Santiago. LITERATURE Cultura Social (monthly magazine), May 1914, Manila. Black and white illustration identifying it as “Cuadro de Luna” on the cover as well as on page 231. Filipinas Heritage Library Collection. WRITE UP: Nicolás de la Peña Cuéllar was born in Trujillo, (Cáceres) on February 21, 1852. He studied law and graduated in administrative law at the Central University (Madrid). He entered the army on May 12, 1875, obtained a position by competitive examination, and from January 12, 1878 until 1881 was lieutenant auditor of third class in the Captaincy General of the Balearic Islands. He soon became a prosecuting attorney of the Supreme Council of War and Navy. By then, Nicolás de la Peña, despite being barely 30 years old, had achieved two honorable decorations: Knight of Isabella the Catholic and Commander of Charles III De la Peña left his post on February 1, 1899 and was sent to Cartagena as a court-martial advisor to the army. Earlier, on December 15, 1898, a few months after the capitulation, he signed a prologue to the memoir La Campaña de la escuadra norteamericana en Filipinas (Cartagena, 1899), in which he accused the United States of not having respected international law and Spanish politicians of the war disaster. However, he made no mention of his execrable role in the process against Rizal. In 1910 he was a senator of the Spanish Cortes for the province of Valladolid for the Liberal Party. By then he was already an academician of Jurisprudence and Legislation in Madrid. He must have died shortly after, as it is no longer possible to find news of him. There is perhaps no better metaphor for Juan Luna’s frame of mind in 1896 than this portrait of ‘The Patient Christ’, waiting for his fate to be decided while he languished in Fort Santiago. Would it be long years of imprisonment or even execution? Luna had just narrowly escaped the guillotine in France, accused of the death of his wife Paz Pardo de Tavera. He had been imprisoned in September 1892 and had only been found innocent, by reason of his “savage temperament,” only in the following year in February. He had withdrawn to Madrid to forget those unpleasant circumstances and then returned to Manila in his home country in 1894 with this younger brother Antonio, hoping to recuperate and find his lost happiness. It was to be a bittersweet respite, however, punctuated by the brothers Luna opening a fencing school, Juan Luna’s side trip to Japan and then, his return immediately after the discovery of the Katipunan and the first Katipunan’s battle of Pinaglabanan. Juan and Antonio were to be swept up and arrested in the dragnet unleashed by these events and thrown into the Spanish dungeons. Wrote M. Arias y Rodriguez (1850-1924) of Luna's prison cell, a miserable state of affairs : "The dungeon consisted of a small room about three meters long by two and a half wide: a meter from the floor was a wooden floorboard that occupied the entire cell to avoid the high humidity of the floor, located at a level lower than the patio. In front of the front door there was a square window with light iron bars. The half-bleached walls had an unequal surface, almost like a rough stone, and the innumerable holes and cracks on them showed that they had not been repaired for a long time." (This report appeared in La Ilustracion Artistica, 6 August 1900 and was reproduced by Lib Ramos along with the accompanying photograph.) He noted, however, that Luna was able to have "books, colors and brushes" and thus, "for his pastime or leisure, [Luna] adorned the rough walls of the so-called dungeon with his works." Despite these privileges, Luna must surely have suffered grievously from this second round of false accusations and imprisonment. While the colonial government and the friars were suspicious of all foreign-educated Filipinos — calling them “filibusterismos” — both brothers were in fact completely innocent of the accusation that they had participated in the armed revolt. Once more, Luna would call upon the friendships made in Madrid with the highest echelons of the Spanish court and he would receive a pardon on May 27th, 1897, on the occasion of King Alfonso XIII’s birthday 10 days earlier. “Ecce Homo” would be a gift to Don Nicolas de la Peña, auditor-general of the Spanish Army and the man whose duties included recommending that Jose Rizal be brought to trial. He would, in fact, sign the sentence that would be read to Rizal on December 29th. The importance of this man would not be lost on Juan Luna and de la Pena’s descendants would note that Luna himself would give the painting the name “El Cristo de la Paciencia.” In the work at hand, Luna paints a powerful portrait of “Ecce Homo”, so called after the ironic words of Pontius Pilate as he presented Jesus Christ to the jeering mob. “El Cristo de la Paciencia” sits with two hands bound in front of him, helpless but steadfast; His face is bruised and wounded by the beatings of the Roman soldiers. He remains cloaked, however, in the white of purity and innocence. On His head, three rays represent His Godliness, as does the halo. The painting thus presents two meanings : The first, an account of Juan Luna and his sufferings; but also, more importantly, perhaps, a coded message of defiance of the innocence of Jose Rizal. Rizal after all would meet his fate and glory at the firing squad a few months earlier at the very hands of the Spanish government, represented by Don Nicolas de la Peña.
Juan Luna y Novicio (Filipino, 1857-1899) study of a male nude from the back, in black and white chalk (?) on paper, signed lower right. [Art: 24" H x 15" W; Frame: 32" H x 24" W]. Water damage upper left.
Juan Luna y Novicio (Badoc, Filipinas, 1857 - Hong-Kong, 1899) 'Copy of Ribera's Saint Andres' Oil on canvas. Signed, dated and situated in Madrid, 1881. In it's original and imposing carved and gilded wooden frame. 106,5 x 69,5 cm.
JUAN LUNA Y NOVICIO Badoc, Philippines 1857 - Hong Kong 1899 allegory study pencil drawing on paper Measures 290 X 375 mm With the artist's stamp: "JUAN LUNA Y NOVICIO PENSIONADO".
JUAN LUNA AND NOVICE Badoc, Philippines 1857 - Hong Kong 1899 man portrait studies Charcoal drawing on paper Measures 118 x 99mm; 120x95mm Framed With artist's stamp.
JUAN LUNA Y NOVICIO (Badoc, Philippines, 1857 - Hong Kong, 1899). "Souvenir of the Battle of Lepanto ", 1887. Oil on canvas. Re-lined Signed, titled, dedicated to Vicente Romero Girón and dated in the lower left corner. Measurements: 20 x 19 cm; 52 x 48 cm (frame). Juan Luna's epic paintings were celebrated internationally, and it was "The Battle of Lepanto" (in homage to the Christian victory over the Ottomans in 1571) which brought him the greatest fame. In the same year in which he painted the historical theme of this naval battle (a commission from the Spanish Senate to the distinguished Philippine painter), he executed the portrait in question. As the dedication says, it is part of the same theme. Although it does not coincide exactly with any of the figures in the final painting, it has notable similarities with the main protagonists of the naval battle, as he would eventually conceive it. Firstly, we have John of Austria (of whom he made various preparatory drawings, and who in the final painting is placed at the bow of the ship, captaining the Christian fleet), wearing a helmet topped with a plume of feathers, with an aristocratic profile and a trimmed moustache, similar to the present figure. However, it is more likely that this is a self-portrait, as Juan Luna included himself among the sailors in Philip II's army (which also included Cervantes). Indeed, his features coincide with those of the personage who in the official commission wears a dalmatic and helmet. The fact that he is included as part of such a victorious feat attests (the royal galley sinking the Turkish galleon) to the self-esteem Juan de Luna owed to himself, and also to the pre-eminent place he enjoyed not only in the Spanish sphere, but also internationally. In the present portrait, we see the sitter in profile, looking straight ahead, with a fragment of sail breaking the composition diagonally, and his gaze straight ahead leads us to imagine his complacency at the enemy's shipwreck. "The Battle of Lepanto", a symbol of the Catholic triumph against the invading forces, was intended for the Senate Conference Room. In technique and style, we can appreciate the broad, vibrant, undone brushstroke characteristic of the Filipino painter, a language close to Impressionism but inscribed in a realism of naturalistic tone. Juan Luna trained at the Ateneo de la Compañía de Manila, where he was taught by Agustín Saéz. He entered the Academy of Fine Arts in the same city, where he was a disciple of Lorenzo Guerrero. In 1877 he was awarded a scholarship by the Manila City Council which enabled him to move to Madrid to further his training at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts. In the Spanish capital he became a pupil of Alejo Vera and travelled with him to Rome when the latter was appointed director of the Spanish Academy in that city. He subsequently settled in Paris, where he opened his own studio. He received important institutional commissions, among them the one he received in 1887 from the Spanish Senate, "The Battle of Lepanto". The Ministry of Overseas France commissioned another work from him, a composition representing Spain and the Philippines. Luna also took part in numerous official exhibitions, being awarded a second medal for "Cleopatra" at the National Fine Arts Exhibition of 1881 and a first medal for "Spoliarium" at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts of 1884. He also exhibited his works abroad, and in fact sent his canvases to the Paris Salon of 1886, where he was awarded the third medal. Two years later, in 1888, he was awarded a second medal at the Universal Exhibition in Barcelona. He took part in the Universal Exhibition in Paris, where he was awarded the third medal. Juan Luna's works are currently represented in important art centres such as the Prado Museum, the National Museum of the Philippines, the Cádiz Town Hall, the Captaincy General of Seville, the Government Delegation of the Basque Country, etc.
Oil on canvas Signed in the lower right corner There are reports that Luna painted an Ecce Homo when he was imprisoned in Manila for eight months with his brother Antonio, accused by the Spanish authorities of sedition in the revolution of 1996. According to the present owners, this work was a gift from Luna to his great-grandfather for the help he received for his release, and which Luna entitled "Christ of Patience", according to the version of the family heir. His ancestor was an auditor general in the Spanish army in the Philippines from 1896, in fact, he was one of those who signed the capitulation of Manila to the US troops. Reference Bibliography: Guerrero, L.M., "Glorias españolas y filipinas. The Philippine painter Juan Luna and Galdosian trials". ABC, 30 June 1962. 110 x 70 cm
Juan Luna y Novicio (Badoc, Filipinas, 1857-Hong Kong, 1899) Ángel. Dibujo a lápiz sobre papel. Firmado. 41 x 31 cm. Inicialmente estudió en el ambiente de los jesuitas en el Ateneo Municipal, aprovechaba todo lo posible sus horas de ocio para ver y aprender pintura. Finalmente, mientras estudiaba pintura, también estudió para piloto en la escuela naval de Manila, llegando a trabajar como marinero y realizando varios viajes. Estos viajes le permitieron conocer otras ciudades y culturas. No obstante, sus periodos de regreso los aprovechaba para seguir formándose en la pintura, lo que le llevó hasta el estudio del pintor español Agustín Sáez Glanadell, activo en Manila. Lorenzo Guerrero era una personalidad que había reconocido el talento de Juan y se convirtió en su tutor. Llegó a convencer a sus padres para que lo enviaran a estudiar a España y el año 1877 viajó a Barcelona en compañía de su hermano Manuel, que era violinista. En España se inscribió inicialmente en la Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando de Madrid. Allí entabló contacto con Eduardo Rosales. Posteriormente a la muerte de este, fue discípulo de Alejo Vera, con el cual marchó a Roma donde permaneció varios años estudiando los maestros del Renacimiento y realizando obras muy importantes de su carrera. El año 1894 regresó definitivamente a su tierra. Influido por el peso de la obra de Rosales, su obra se inicia en un estilo realista, aunque sus pinceladas, amplias, deshechas e indefinidas, le acercarían a la estética innovadora de fin de siglo en el último periodo de su vida. Su actividad en Roma con Alejo Vera le llevó a interesarse por la iconografía de la Antigüedad clásica, aunque después, durante la década de los noventa y coincidiendo con su estancia en París y su participación en el proceso independentista de su país, orientó su mirada hacia un mundo cotidiano y más contemporáneo.
Juan Luna y Novicio (Badoc, Filipinas, 1857-Hong Kong, 1899) Ángel. Dibujo a lápiz sobre papel. Firmado. 41 x 31 cm. Inicialmente estudió en el ambiente de los jesuitas en el Ateneo Municipal, aprovechaba todo lo posible sus horas de ocio para ver y aprender pintura. Finalmente, mientras estudiaba pintura, también estudió para piloto en la escuela naval de Manila, llegando a trabajar como marinero y realizando varios viajes. Estos viajes le permitieron conocer otras ciudades y culturas. No obstante, sus periodos de regreso los aprovechaba para seguir formándose en la pintura, lo que le llevó hasta el estudio del pintor español Agustín Sáez Glanadell, activo en Manila. Lorenzo Guerrero era una personalidad que había reconocido el talento de Juan y se convirtió en su tutor. Llegó a convencer a sus padres para que lo enviaran a estudiar a España y el año 1877 viajó a Barcelona en compañía de su hermano Manuel, que era violinista. En España se inscribió inicialmente en la Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando de Madrid. Allí entabló contacto con Eduardo Rosales. Posteriormente a la muerte de este, fue discípulo de Alejo Vera, con el cual marchó a Roma donde permaneció varios años estudiando los maestros del Renacimiento y realizando obras muy importantes de su carrera. El año 1894 regresó definitivamente a su tierra. Influido por el peso de la obra de Rosales, su obra se inicia en un estilo realista, aunque sus pinceladas, amplias, deshechas e indefinidas, le acercarían a la estética innovadora de fin de siglo en el último periodo de su vida. Su actividad en Roma con Alejo Vera le llevó a interesarse por la iconografía de la Antigüedad clásica, aunque después, durante la década de los noventa y coincidiendo con su estancia en París y su participación en el proceso independentista de su país, orientó su mirada hacia un mundo cotidiano y más contemporáneo.
Juan Luna y Novicio (Badoc, Filipinas, 1857-Hong-Kong, 1899) "Figuras".Dos dibujos a carboncillo sobre papel en anverso y reverso. Firmado. 17 x 23 cm.
JUAN LUNA Y NOVICIO (1857-1899). Oil on canvas Signed & dedicated to Al Sr. D. Miguel Morayta" de su amigo Luna. The Philipino painter and watercolourist began his training in Manila, where his family had moved in 1961, to then complete it in Spain, Rome, & Paris where he finally decided to set up his studio next to his the already famous Philipino painter Félix Resurrección Hidalgo. There followed innumerable institutional commisions as well as awards and homages. He took part in many exhibitions, winning second place in the Nacional de Bellas Artes of 1881 for his “Cleopatra” & first place in 1884 his famous “Spoliarium”. He was one of the first Philipino painters to win international fame as well as an undisputed position amongst the Philipino artists of the C19th. He became linked with the masonic lodge, Solidaridad nº53, del Gran Oriente Español, thanks to which he established a friendship with D. Miguel Moraytsa, a man of considerable political importance during the First Republic, to whom he dedicated the work which we now present. Despìte being recognised for the historical and allegorical themes of his painting, from 1885 -1890 Luna completed a series of portraits of female workers from the poorer quarters of Madrid, where he displayed a much lighter impressionistic brush. Amongst which series of “Chulas” we can place this work. 71 x 49 cm; 92 x 68cm. (frame).
The only surviving child of the artist and his wife Andres, called Luling, was the saving grace of a relationship. Luna depicts his son, dressed in the inspired attire of the late 19th Century bourgeoisie, with tenderness and utter affection. Literature: Terra, Jun. Juan Luna Drawings: The Paris Period From the Collection of Dr. Eleuterio M. Pascual. (Dr. Eleuterio M. Pascual Publishing House, 1998) p.115
JUAN LUNA Y NOVICIO Badoc, Philippines 1857 - Hong-Kong 1899 “Ciociaro. 1884” Oil on canvas Signed and dated in Rome Measurements 45.5 x 38.4 cm Origin: - Important collection of Lima, Peru. - Private collection, Madrid. This work belongs to a small group of portraits of quick and vibrant brushstrokes made in nature when the Filipino artist enjoyed a scholarship to study at the Academia Española de Bellas Artes in Rome (1878-1884). The Shepherd Boy painting (oil on canvas, 48.5 x 39 cm) auctioned at Sotheby's Singapore in April 2005 presents the same stylistic characteristics of Ciociaro. In both works the pictorial treatment denotes a great economy of means solved by an energetic but accurate brushstrokes that are circumscribed only to the represented model, leaving part of the ends of the canvas unpainted. In the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes of 1884 in Madrid he obtains a first class medal with the work Spolarium (National Museum of the Philippines, Manila) with great public and critical success that supposed the definitive takeoff to his career.
LUNA Y NOVICIO, JUAN (1857 - 1900). "Hércules". Dibujo. 28 x 38 cm. Firmado en el ángulo inferior derecho. En la parte superior izquierda : "Juan Luna y Novicio: Pensionado." y titulado "Boceto 3".
LUNA Y NOVICIO, JUAN (1857 - 1900). "Desnudo femenino". Dibujo. 29 x 38,5 cm. Firmado en el ángulo inferior derecho. En el ángulo superior izquierdo "Juan Luna y Novicio: Pensionado".
LUNA Y NOVICIO, JUAN (1857 - 1900). "Anciano romano". Dibujo. 59 x 44 cm. Firmado y localizado "Roma" en el ángulo inferior derecho. En el ángulo superior izquierdo "Juan Luna y Novicio: Pensionado".
