{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":823,"auction_id":2,"set_id":2,"lot_number":"730","artist":"Regino Garcia (1840 - 1916)","title":"Untitled","starting_price":25000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1877 (lower right)","medium":"oil on mother of pearl","size":"9” x 8” (23 cm x 20 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Regino Garcia y Baza was a Filipino botanist, scientific illustrator, and painter. He had his formal training in the arts at the famed Academia de Dibujo y Pintura and also studied at the Escuela de Agricultura en Manila. He won his first major award in 1861, bagging the first prize in Coloring and Drawing from Life in the Academia’s annual assembly. Garcia began working in 1866 at the Comision de la Flora Forestal as an assistant to the renowned Spanish naturalist and botanist Sebastian Vidal y Soler, who would also become director of Manila’s Jardín Botánico (now the Mehan Garden) from 1878 until his death in 1889.<br /><br />Together with Vidal y Soler, Garcia was a frequenter of the provinces, collecting and studying numerous botanical specimens. While on these excursions, Garcia also dabbled in painting landscapes. The work at hand, an oil painting on Mother of Pearl, exhibits Garcia’s knack for genre painting, showing the artist’s keen eye for detail and a charming naturalism stemming from his profound immersions in the idyllic quaintness of the countryside. Garcia made this 1877 piece at some time between his stint as the chief gardener of the Jardín Botánico (which he held from 1866 to 1877) and his post as an assistant at the Spanish Forestry Bureau (which he assumed from 1877 to 1898).<br /><br />But perhaps Garcia’s landmark works can be seen in the lavish third edition (published between 1877 and 1883) of Fray Francisco Manuel Blanco’s monumental botanical book “Flora de Filipinas”; Garcia produced at least 35 intricately and colorfully illustrated plates of the country’s plant species. Garcia also drew 100 illustrations in 1883 for Vidal y Soler’s Sinopsis de Familias y Géneros de Plantas Leñosas de Filipinas, an introduction to Philippine forest flora.<br /><br /> In his lifetime, Garcia achieved prominence in international expositions. At the 1887 Exposicion General de Filipinas in Madrid, where Garcia was named head of the Philippine participation, he entered several landscapes elaborately painted on dishes. He also participated at the 1904 Universal Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, with his entry “Nipa House” also painted on a plate.<br /><br /> A noted author, educator, and public servant, Garcia wrote the Catálogo de las Plantas del Herbario for the Comisión de la Flora Forestal in 1892. He was appointed instructor in painting at the University of Santo Tomas in 1889 and director of Manila’s walks, gardens, and parks in 1890. By 1900, Garcia had been appointed botanist in the Forestry Bureau of the American Civil Service. As a botanist, Garcia wrote numerous monographs, articles, and pamphlets on botany, agriculture, and forestry.<br /><br /> Garcia took part in the struggle for Philippine independence. He served as a colonel in the engineering corps of Gen. Antonio Luna’s army and supervised the construction of defense works in Pampanga and Bulacan. Garcia was one of only three visual artists (along with Miguel Zaragoza and Melecio Figueroa) to become signatories to the Malolos Constitution, the first republican constitution in Asia. (Adrian Maranan)","lot_group":"OBJET D' ARTS","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":320000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":320000,"userBid":6313,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":384512,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":843,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/2/2/lot/730.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[220000,240000,260000,280000,300000,320000,340000,360000,380000,400000,450000,500000,550000,600000,650000,700000,750000,800000,900000,1000000,1100000,1200000,1300000,1400000,1500000,1600000,1700000,1800000,1900000,2000000,2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":729,"next":731,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}