{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":46025,"auction_id":93,"set_id":122,"lot_number":"59","artist":"Félix Resurrección Hidalgo (1855 - 1913)","title":"Landscape","starting_price":2200000,"signed_dated":"signed, dated 1898 and inscribed \"A mi amigo, R. Ramirez\" (lower left)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"14\" x 18\" (36 cm x 46 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"A gift from the artist to Ramon Ramirez <br /> Private collection, Manila","exhibited":null,"literature":"Laya, Jaime C., ed. Consuming Passions: Philippine Collectibles. Pasig City: Anvil Publishing, Inc, 2003. Full-color photograph and catalogued in the caption on page 332.","write_up":"By his surname's mere connotation alone, Felix Resureccion Hidalgo was undoubtedly among his generation's most noble. Notwithstanding his landed status, Hidalgo always displayed an introverted and calm temperament. .<br><br> Hidalgo's gentle disposition is especially evident in his landscapes and seascapes, with the eminent biographer E. Arsenio Manuel describing the artist's small paisajes as \"cool and soothing.\"<br><br> Such is the case with this dreamy landscape offered in this sale, likely depicting a tranquil vista of Brittany in northern France. When Hidalgo painted this charming work, he had been living in Paris, the bastion of the ilustrados. These Filipino expatriates enjoyed the frolics of freedom, all the while championing and lobbying for reforms in their motherland from Madre España.<br><br> Hidalgo's landscapes and seascapes were a stark difference from the Neoclassical grandeur of his award-winning works, including his career-defining Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho (silver medalist at the 1884 Madrid Exposition) and La Barca de Aqueronte (silver star at the 1889 Paris Exposition). They possess the immediacy and spontaneity of plein air painting, with soft colors emphasizing an ethereal realm of sensuous sensibility. Like the work at hand, Hidalgo's landscapes echo the thunderous roars of Impressionism that were resounding all over Paris in the second half of the 19th century.<br><br> Hidalgo would gift this quaint landscape to his beloved amigo Ramon Ramirez—his brother in the spirit of nationalism. In 1898, Hidalgo and Ramirez bonded over a powerful cause: the international recognition of the Emilio Aguinaldo- led Philippine Revolutionary Government, which had just declared independence from Spain. Felipe Agoncillo, the first Filipino diplomat, was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary and was tasked to convince the American government that the nascent Filipino nation was more than capable of upholding their newfound sovereignty amid the impending peace treaty between Spain and the US that would lead to the selling and turnover of the Philippines to the American imperial flag.<br><br> After Agoncillo's failed diplomatic mission to the White House, in which President William McKinley dismissed his appeals for Filipino participation at the Peace Commissions between the US and Spain, the Filipino diplomat sailed to Paris and stayed at the Hotel Continental. Agoncillo hoped to participate in the Peace Commissions (to be held at the hotel in October 1898) and appeal to the American Peace Commissioners to recognize the Philippines' self- determination. Agoncillo then rallied all the Filipinos in Paris, resulting in the formation of a revolutionary committee that comprised Jose Ramirez as president; Felix M. Roxas and Fernando A. Zobel as secretaries; Ramon Abarca as treasurer; and Hidalgo, Antonio Vergel de Dios, and Ramon Ramirez as councilors.<br><br> Under Agoncillo's leadership, the Diplomatic Commissions in Europe gathered all Filipinos from Madrid, London, and Paris, the latter comprising Juan Luna, Hidalgo, and Ramirez. Despite the futility and fragility of the situation, they steadfastly campaigned for the just cause of Philippine sovereignty. In the end, American imperialism prevailed, dismissing Agoncillo's position paper that he proposed to the Peace Commission and banning Filipino representation in the peace talks. The Philippines' harrowing fate had already been sealed for 20 million US dollars.<br><br> Ramirez's Parisian abode became the \"unofficial Embassy of the Philippine Islands\" in France (and perhaps all over Europe) from the twilight years of the 19th century until the dawn of the 20th century. Filipinos living in the diaspora, particularly the ilustrados, frequented the Ramirez residence, with Hidalgo being one of his regular visitors. Hidalgo gifted these two oil paintings as a symbol of brotherhood, congeniality, generosity for Ramirez's hospitality, and their shared aspirations for the cause of liberty. (Adrian Maranan)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":2800000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":2800000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":3364480,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":45578,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/93/122/lot/59.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[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":58,"next":60,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}