Una Dama a la Luz de la Luna
signed (lower right)
oil on canvas
13” x 18 1/8” (33 cm x 46 cm)

Literature:
Alfredo Roces, Hidalgo and the Generation of 1872, Ben Press Publishing, 1998, p.172 (illustrated)

Provenance:
Estate of the artist
Dona Maria Barbara Padilla y Flores
Don Eduardo Hidalgo Paz, thence by descent

Emmanuel Torres wrote in 1974: “To the 19th century European artist, success was exhibiting at a Salon. An annual competition run by an association with schools of fine arts, the Salon could make or break him. If his works passed the light screening committee, they were shown to the public and noticed by the right people who patronized and bought art works at handsome prices.

These salons were grand affairs attended by Very Important People among the bourgeois and ruling classes, including heads of state and members of royalty, who could give the aspiring artist instant fame, respectability, the right connections and money. If he won a prize, a medal of gold , silver, or bronze, bravo! He had the High and Mighty pelting roses at his feet. In time he would become part of the aesthetic Establishment that dictated standards of excellence in official circles, the Academe and the Fourth Estate.”

Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo and Juan Luna were the first Filipino painters to gain international success this way.

Felix Ressurrecion Hidalgo found an inexhaustible source of inspiration in landscapes and seascapes- he painted so many of them, some no larger than the size of one’s hand – in a style strongly reminiscent of Corot and ther Barbizon school. The romantic allure of woodlands, secret coves and rivers. Arcadian scenes where a misty, solitary sylph or dyad may be glimpsed reclining or gliding away, and open seas appealed to his essentially lyric sensibility, which was more inclined to Buddhist contemplation than revolutionary passion. This lyricism in his landscape is immediately apparent when compared to almost any of Luna’s which seethes with dramatic tension. These landscapes reveal his singular genius for painting idyllic vistas. The Hidalgo hallmarks are there: the penchant for subtle halftones, hazy indistinct outlines, subdued cool colors. It can be said that Hidalgo took much time to study nature. In 1883, he toured Spain with his close friend, Francisco de Yriarte. There, he pitched a tent to study nature more closely and then moved to Paris for further studies.

When Felix Resureccion Hidalgo died in 1913 leaving a fortune of real estate, shares of stocks, and paintings, leaving without legitimate descendants nor recognized natural heirs, the mother of the deceased, Dona Maria Barbara Padilla y Flores, inherits. The next year she dies leaving the Hidalgo-Padilla fortune to her heirs. The bulk of the paintings then went to the “sobrinos” of Felix, namely Don Felipe Hidalgo, son of Jose; Don Eduardo Hidalgo Paz and Dona Rosario Paz de Perez, children of his sister Pilar who was married to Maximo Paz.

Leon Gallery is privileged to offer at auction this highly important and very well-preserved work by Felix Resureccion-Hidalgo. In its original glass frame, on oil on canvas, the work will finally cede from within the family’s possession for over 100 years (1913- 2015).