{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":25,"auction_id":1,"set_id":1,"lot_number":"157","artist":"Juan Luna (1857 - 1899)","title":"Study of Paz Picking Flowers in a Garden","starting_price":3000000,"signed_dated":"signed lower right","medium":"oil on wood","size":"18” x 14 1/2” (46 cm x 37 cm)","property":"PROPERTY FROM THE AMBASSADOR PEDRO CONLU HERNAEZ COLLECTION","coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"The Private Life of Juan Luna Rare Portraits of the Artist and His Wife Paz by LISA GUERRERO NAKPIL
\nOn the 100th year of Juan Luna’s birth — October 25, 1857\n— This Week Magazine published an entire issue in his\nhonor. Dubbing him ‘painter, patriot, and propagandist’,\nit produced a comprehensive report on his ‘life and times’ as well\nas a “representative collection of his works.”
Two of those works, from the Grace Luna de San Pedro collection,\nshine a spotlight on a side of Luna not seen in his heroic works\nsuch as ‘Spoliarium’ or the “Blood Compact” nor his lyrical Roman\nopus ‘Hymen oh Hymenee.’
Under the heading of ‘He Liked to Paint Portraits of His Family’\nis one (of several) works that captures his bride, the heiress Paz\nPardo de Tavera. It is captioned “Study of Paz (sitting) and a friend\npicking flowers in a garden was painted by Luna in Europe.” That\nwork is now in the Philippine National Museum, part of that trove\nacquired from Grace Luna and donated to it.
It was part of a series of his private home life that was included in\nthose pages, explained as follows, “Wife, Paz Pardo de Tavera, was a\nfavorite subject of Luna. Many times, he would ask her to pose for\nhim when he was in low spirits,” the article said. “Luna would paint\nher as she lay in bed after giving birth to their son Andres as he lay\nin the decorated crib beside her. In the same bed, she modeled for\nhis Ensueños de Amor (Dreams of Love.)…(at left) is a portrait of\nPaz in a dimly lit room, the light coming from the single window\nbehind her.
There is a second work also featured, described as “‘Self-Portrait’\nwith Luna facing a mirror, holding his palette. He is wearing a\nbonnet and his face is dark. Behind him is the lighted altar.”
The self-portrait is from the year 1885, presumably from the\ntestimony of Grace Luna, when Luna had just arrived in Paris\nafter his triumph at the Exposicion Nacional de Bellas Artes in\nMadrid, the biggest art competition in Spain — and its most\nfiercely contested. Luna would as a result become the most famous\nartist in the country, winning a gold medal for Spoliarium. It\nbecame a tantalizing matter of Spanish national interest (and\nFilipino honor) that the painting missed not being given the overall accolade, the “Prize of Honor.” The King of Spain Alfonso XII\nhimself took a personal interest in the case that was consuming the\npublic’s appetite and that is said to have dominated the headlines\nfor almost two years with opinions, accusations and conspiracy\ntheories against the Filipino artist. (The king had become\nacquainted with Luna through their mutual friend, the sculptor\nMariano Benlliure and would later decide to make amends by\ncommissioning the Battle of Lepanto to be hung in a place of\nhonor in the Spanish Senate.)
All this added to Luna’s reputation and attached a certain glamor\nand fame to him, making him the most famous artist (of any origin,\nSpanish or Filipino) in Spain and its prized colony, the Philippines.\nHe would find Madrid too small for his artistic horizons and would\nmove to Paris, the center of the world of art.
Juan Luna would set up a studio at No. 65 Boulevard Arago, in\nthe same picturesque enclave of artists in which Felix Resurreccion\nHidalgo also lived. It consisted of half-timbered villas surrounded\nby paths and pretty gardens. There was a huge skylight that would\nilluminate the photographs of Luna and his friends, including Jose\nRizal and the Pardo de Taveras, gamboling among tapestries and\npaintings and the colorful props for Luna’s historical works.
It was plain that it was only a matter of time before he would come\ninto the same orbit as the Pardo de Taveras who were friends of his\nneighbor Resurreccion Hidalgo from Old Manila. It was through\nthe brothers Trinidad and Felix that he would meet Paz — the\narticle which is based on the recollections of Andres Luna de San\nPedro — would report that “Often Luna would be left alone with\nPaz. That started the love between them. Both lonely, they talked\nabout the native country and all its nostalgic memories. They\napparently found a common understanding, and on December 8,\n1886, Luna and Paz got married, the bridegroom, thirty, the bride\ntwenty-one.”
The Study of Paz Picking Flowers in a Garden can be viewed as\nthe first part of a series that would include The Study of Paz and a\nFriend Picking Flowers in a Garden.
Both have the loose brushstrokes and lighting that would\ndistinguish the winds of Impressionism that would blow through\nParis in the 1860s with the works of Claude Monet and Auguste\nRenoir. It would have been impossible for Luna not to take notice\nof this artistic revolution; and despite his being knee-deep in the\nworld of academic painting, his private works not intended for salon competitions reflected this. Impressionist works, at the time,\nwere routinely accused of being ‘studies’ or preparatory works but\nthis ‘Studio’ as Luna would term it can easily stand on its own. It\nfit into the new pre-occupation of the art world away from scenes\nof historical importance to those that captured everyday life in the\ncity of Paris.
The location would have been in the Paris park, the Bois de\nBoulogne, which was a few blocks from the Pardo de Tavera home\nin posh Villa Dupont. There are photographs of the entire flock\nof ilustrados roosting in its woods, Juan Luna, Paz, Jose Rizal and\nother worthies, enjoying al fresco luncheons.
The depiction of Paz in the womanly pursuit of gathering blossoms\nwas perhaps part of his courtship ritual of the attractive heiress\nwho would have been flattered by the focus one needed to paint a\nportrait.
The Study shows how Luna was experimenting with compositions\n— using the strong silhouette of the tree to divide the work — and\nwith the treatment of light and dark in the distant treeline that\nwould be more polished, as seen in the other works from the same\nperiod, also at the National Museum and shown here.
Later, the same vignette would become the basis of the highly\npolished “Picnic in Normandy”, now in the collection of the Jorge\nVargas Museum of the University of the Philippines. It is a view of\na field with women in various poses, looking out to the distance,\nenjoying the fresh air, and yes, gathering wild flowers.\n\n","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":5000000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":5000000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":6008000,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":178,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/1/1/lot/157.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":156,"next":158,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}