{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":58408,"auction_id":121,"set_id":155,"lot_number":"42","artist":"Felix Pardo de Tavera (1859 - 1932)","title":"Cascando Nueces (Cracking Nuts)","starting_price":160000,"signed_dated":"ca.1890","medium":"bronze and granite","size":"H: 6 1/4\" (16 cm) \nL: 4 1/4\" (11 cm) \nW: 6 1/4\" (16 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Private collection, Manila","exhibited":null,"literature":"Cariño, Jose Maria A. Triumph and Tragedy: The Life and Works of Félix\nPardo de Tavera. Pasay City: Foreign Service Institute, 2022. Colored\nphotographs and title on pages 160-161.","write_up":"Felix Pardo de Tavera was the least known of the illustrious Pardo de Taveras. His brother, Dr. Trinidad H. Pardo de Tavera, was a renowned physician, scholar, writer, and politician, while Dr. Mita Pardo de Tavera, daughter of Trinidad’s granddaughter, was a prominent pulmonologist,writer, socio-civic leader, community health worker, and government official. He was also the brother-in-law of the great painter, Juan Luna, husband of his sister, the tragic Paz Pardo de Tavera.
Felix Victor Francisco Domingo Pardo de Tavera y Gorricho was born in Manila on 28 July 1859 to Don Felix Pardo de Tavera and the former Juliana Gorricho. Don Felix, Sr. was a lawyer and politician whose Pardo ancestors originated from Tavira, Portugal and counted among their ancestors, Juan Pardo de Tavera, who carried the title, Marquis de Magahon, and Juan Pardo de Tavera, VI, the Archbishop of Toledo and the Grand Inquisitor of Spain during the reign of King Carlos I.
In 1825, Don Felix, Sr.’s father, Julian Pardo de Tavera sailed to Manila after his marriage to Juana Maria Gomez and settled in Intramuros, Manila where the couple lived in a house built by Juliana’s parents, Don Jose Damaso Gorricho and his wife, the Ciriaca , at 51 Cabildo Street where they raised their three children, Felix, Joaquin, and Carmen. Don Jose was a quartermaster of the Spanish army who married Dona Ciriaca Santos of Imus, Cavite. Her marriage to a Spanish army man paved the way for the enterprising Ciriaca to supply zacate or grass as horse feed for the Spanish cavalry. As a zacatera, Dona Ciriaca built a fortune which she used to expand her family’s landholdings from Cavite to Intramuros to Escolta. But the family’s fortune lay not only in these landholdings. Don Jose was also into banking and manufacturing and was credited with initiating some of the Philippines’ industries.
At the age of five, Felix lost his father when the 33 year-old Felix, Sr., then a prominent lawyer, perished during the massive 1863 earthquake while hearing the Corpus Christi mass with his wife at the Manila Cathedral. Felix hijo’s uncle, Joaquin, then a rising lawyer, stepped in as surrogate father to his brother’s young family and raised them as his own.
Felix hijo had his early lessons in art at the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura (later renamed as the Escuela Superior de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado before it was renamed and headed by Rafael Enriquez as the Escuela de Bellas Artes and absorbed by the University of the Philippines as the U.P. School of Fine Arts), which was conveniently located at the ground floor of their home. Felix was under the tutelage of the painter, Felipe Baldomero G. Roxas, stepbrother of the first European-trained Filipino architect, Felix Roxas. Another tragedy befell the Pardo de Tavera family when an order for the arrest of the family’s padre de familia, Don Joaquin, was announced on 15 February 1872. The mutiny of a group of soldiers in Cavite provided then Spanish Governor General Rafael Izquierdo with a pretext to move against the liberals. Since Don Joaquin took the lead in demanding reforms, his stance was taken as rebelliousness and he and several of his colleagues were charged with “complicity in the crime of proclaiming the establishment of a new republic.” Three priests, Frs. Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, were sentenced to die by garrote and were executed in Bagumbayan, Manila on 17 February 1872.
Don Joaquin was sentenced to four years imprisonment and was exiled, accompanied by his wife, Dona Gertrudis, leaving on board the Flores de Maria to the Mariana Islands on April, 1872.
On 13 January 1875, almost three years after their exile, news arrived that the Filipino deportados had been pardoned and Don Joaquin’s fellow reformador, Don Maximo Paterno, chartered the merchant steamer, Legazpi, to take them to Hong Kong enroute to Europe. Don Joaquin and Dona Gertrudis, chose to reside in Paris and soon after, sent for their eldest nephew, Trinidad H. Pardo de Tavera, and later Dona Juliana, Felix and Paz to live with them in Paris. Don Joaquin’s decision to send for his brother’s family was perhaps to shield them from the scorn and cruelties that may be inflicted on them by spiteful peninsulares. And Paris was then the center of liberal thoughts, education, culture, and the arts where the intellectual and artistic Pardo de Taveras had the freedom to express themselves and gather together with their like-minded countrymen.
Dona Juliana’s homes in Avenue Wagram and Villa Dupont in Paris became salons for young intellectuals, artists, and writers. Famed for her delectable Filipino cuisine, Dona Juliana opened her doors to a group of young, idealistic ilustrados from the Philippines, most of whom were friends of her sons, Trinidad and Felix. Among them were intellectuals such as Jose Rizal, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Pedro Paterno, Maximino Paterno, Baldomero Roxas, Jose Albert, and Antonio Luna, and artists such as Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo and Juan Luna, On 8 December 1886, Paz, the only sister of Trinidad’ and Felix, married their artist friend, Juan Luna, who soon after set up his studio at Dona Juliana’s home at Villa Dupont in Paris.
Having completed his medical studies at the Universite de Paris and constantly surrounded by the artistic works of his brother-in-law, Juan Luna, Felix grew inclined to give in to his artistic bent. While practicing medicine and unable to take up full-time art studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris, Felix enrolled at the Academie Julian and received training from two of France’s most-esteemed Academic painters, Tony Robert-Fleury and William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
Perhaps, early on, Felix realized that he could never equal the works of his brother-in-law, Juan Luna, who at the time was already gaining much acclaim for his works, most notable of which was Spoliarium, which had won for him a gold medal at the Exposicion Nacional de Bellas Artes in Madrid in 1884.
Felix concentrated instead on sculpture, training with the French master sculptor, Auguste Rodin, and in 1892, obtained a scholarship which allowed him to pursue further art studies in Madrid under Mariano Benlliure, one of Spain’s most esteemed sculptors and a good friend of his brother-inlaw, Juan Luna, from their student days at the Real Academia de Espana in Rome. Mariano, together with his brothers, Juan Antonio and Jose, were among the frequent visitors at Villa Dupont where they savored Dona Juliana’s Filipino cuisine while at the same time forging friendships with the Pardo de Tavera brothers and their ilustrado friends.
Under the tutelage of Mariano Benlliure, Felix’s style was said to have adopted “the characteristics of spontaneity and naturalism, as seen in Mariano’s body of works. Mariano’s sculptures display detailed naturalism coupled with impressionistic tinges,” as described in Jose Ma. Carino’s book, Triumph and Tragedy (1922).
The detailed naturalism and spontaneity described above are most evident in his small sculptures which were rendered in marble then cast in bronze and then later in brass done posthumously. To meet the demand for his small sculptures, Felix set up a foundry at the family’s seaside home at Bercksur-Mer in Northern France. Felix’s most popular small bronze sculptures were Antropofago, The Gamin, El Viejo Marinero, and C’est Mi!
Felix’s most charming works are his sculptures of children which capture their innocence, their impishness, and their mirth.
As mentioned in Ruby Paredes’ essay, “The Pardo de Taveras of Manila,” published in Alfred McCoy’s An Anarchy of Families, “In 1886, in Madrid, Felix won silver medals for his works, A Man, A Girl, and Juan Salcedo. A description of the artistic entries to the Paris Exposition in 1889 noted that “the young Filipino D. Felix Pardo de Tavera (had created) a handsome work of art (referring to C’est Mi) of an exquisite taste revealing in the author a sculptural talent bordering on genius.”
On 19 October 1889, Felix Pardo de Tavera married a FrenchArgentine woman named Inocencia Agustina Manigot y Dessein in Paris, France and set up a separate household.
After the Luna tragedy, the trial , and acquittal, Felix picked up the pieces of his life and relocated to Buenos Aires, Argentina where he resumed his medical practice as a pediatrician and was appointed as the director of the French hospital in Argentina. He also set up another foundry in Adrogue, Buenos Aires and gained even more renown as a sculptor, receiving commissions for monuments, art exhibits, and busts of prominent personalities.
Felix also did a bust of his good friend, Jose Rizal, which he kept but that fell and was unfortunately shattered. Unknown to many Felix joined the competition for the design of the Rizal monument held from 1905-1907 which was initially won by the Italian sculptor, Carlos Nicoli of Carrara, Italy, for his scaled plaster model entitled, Al Martir de Bagumbayan. However, he failed to show up at the designated time to sign the contract. The contract was then awarded to the second placer, the Swiss sculptor, Richard Kissling for his Motto Stella (Guiding Star). Felix’s design, which was deemed too elaborate and expensive, was rendered by Paete carver, Luis Ac-ac, and can be seen in Carino’s book, Triumph & Tragedy.
Felix and his family had a good life in Buenos Aires. As Felix advanced in years, he moved to the seaside resort town of Biarritz. He passed away in Paris, France on 12 November 1932. He was laid to rest at the family mausoleum at PereLachaise Cemetery in Paris, France.
Bibliography: Carino, Jose Ma. A. Triumph & Tragedy, The Life & Works Felix Pardo de Tavera. Pasay City: Foreign Service Institute, 2022.
Paredes, Ruby R. “The Ilustrado Legacy: The Pardo de Taveras of Manila,” An Anarchy of Families, State and Family in the Philippines. Edited by Alfred W. McCoy. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1994.
Trota Jose, Regalado. “Felipe Roxas: The Fine Art of Living Well,” 1030 R. Hidalgo, Legacy in Art. Edited by Antonio S. Araneta. Metro Manila: MARA, Inc., 1986.","lot_group":"SCULPTURE","lot_details_html":"
Felix Pardo de Tavera (1859 - 1932) Cascando Nueces (Cracking Nuts) ca.1890 bronze and granite H: 6 1/4\" (16 cm) L: 4 1/4\" (11 cm) W: 6 1/4\" (16 cm)