The Seaman's Prize Winners
Published Feb 5, 2018 12:05 am
By Dr. Jaime C. Laya
We have on home ground Spoliarium, El Pacto de Sangre, and a version of España y Filipinas but it is a special treat to see other Juan Luna prize winners on exhibit at Singapore’s National Gallery.
Born in 1857, Luna studied to be a seaman, learning painting on the side privately under Lorenzo Guerrero and briefly at Manila’s Academia de Dibujo y Pintura. Already an experienced pilot, Luna left for Spain in 1877 to study at the Real Academía de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. The following year, he proceeded to Rome with artist Alejo Vera and remained there for six years.
That was when Luna began participating in official Salons. He won (age 24) a second class medal at the Exposición General de Bellas Artes with La Muerte de Cleopatra, a virtuoso work acclaimed for its subject and composition and its brilliant depiction of gold, stone, textiles, and the pallor of the dead queen.
LUNA'S ART AND INSPIRATIONS Clockwise from top left: Courbet’s A Burial at Ornans; Avant Garde; La Mestiza; La Muerte de Cleopatra; and Les Ignorés or The Unknown Ones (the entire painting and a detail)
The young man continued competing with large history paintings, then considered the supreme art form. At Rome’s Esposizione di Belle Arti, he showed Pompei (1881) and Spoliarium (1884). The same year, he presented Spoliarium in Madrid’s Exposición Nacionál de Bellas Artes where it received a first class medal, an immense achievement for a 27-year-old indio. He brought Spoliarium to Paris in 1886; it was awarded a third class medal by the Societé des Artistes Français.
In Madrid’s 1887 Exposición General de las Islas Filipinas, La Mestiza received a Diploma of Honor. In the same year, he painted La Batalla de Lepanto for the Spanish Senate’s Conference Hall. Even Queen Regent Maria Cristina came to view it in place. For the Exposición Universal de Barcelona(1888) he submitted the final version of España y Filipinas.
Back in Paris, Luna exhibited several paintings at the 1889 Exposition Universelle, one of which won a bronze medal. His works were accepted by the Societé Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1890, 1891 and 1892 including Les Ignorés and Avant Garde.
Les Ignorés is memorable. It’s a winter’s day, sky murky with factory smoke. A working man is accompanied to his rest by humbly dressed co-workers. Following the simple coffin are his grieving wife an unknowing baby in arm and three beautiful young children. Perhaps there is hope, suggested by the sunlight on the sad procession.
Luna probably knew El Greco’s El Entierro del Conde de Orgazand certainly the celebrated work by Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans. The Courbet was exhibited at the 1850-51 Salon, an enormous panting famous as the pioneering work of the Realism Movement showing ordinary people in ordinary situations but on the scale of history painting. El Greco highlights the miraculous appearance of San Esteban and San Agustín and Courbet’s the priest, mayor, and judge. Luna spotlights the children, as Titian does in Vendramin Family Venerating a Relic of the True Cross.
Singapore’s exhibit brings together an unprecedented four of the seaman-painter’s masterpieces: La Muerte de Cleopatra, La Mestiza, Les Ignorés, and Avant Garde.
Notes: (a) Now in the National Museum, Spoliarium was purchased by the Provincial Council of Barcelona and was given by Spain to the Philippines in 1958. El Pacto de Sangre is at Malacañang and a version of España y Filipinas at the Lopez Museum and Library; (b) The Escuela Nautica de Manila is the present Philippine Merchant Marine Academy in Zambales; (c) The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle; and (d) La Muerte de Cleopatra is in Madrid and both Les Ignorés and Avant Garde in Vilanova i la Geltru. Two versions of España y Filipinas are in the exhibit, one from the National Gallery Singapore Collection and the other from the Lopez Museum and Library. El Greco’s painting is in Toledo, Spain; Courbet’s in Paris’ Musee d’Orsay; and Titian’s in London’s National Gallery of Art.
Comments are cordially invited, addressed to [email protected]
LUNA'S ART AND INSPIRATIONS Clockwise from top left: Courbet’s A Burial at Ornans; Avant Garde; La Mestiza; La Muerte de Cleopatra; and Les Ignorés or The Unknown Ones (the entire painting and a detail)
The young man continued competing with large history paintings, then considered the supreme art form. At Rome’s Esposizione di Belle Arti, he showed Pompei (1881) and Spoliarium (1884). The same year, he presented Spoliarium in Madrid’s Exposición Nacionál de Bellas Artes where it received a first class medal, an immense achievement for a 27-year-old indio. He brought Spoliarium to Paris in 1886; it was awarded a third class medal by the Societé des Artistes Français.
In Madrid’s 1887 Exposición General de las Islas Filipinas, La Mestiza received a Diploma of Honor. In the same year, he painted La Batalla de Lepanto for the Spanish Senate’s Conference Hall. Even Queen Regent Maria Cristina came to view it in place. For the Exposición Universal de Barcelona(1888) he submitted the final version of España y Filipinas.
Back in Paris, Luna exhibited several paintings at the 1889 Exposition Universelle, one of which won a bronze medal. His works were accepted by the Societé Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1890, 1891 and 1892 including Les Ignorés and Avant Garde.
Les Ignorés is memorable. It’s a winter’s day, sky murky with factory smoke. A working man is accompanied to his rest by humbly dressed co-workers. Following the simple coffin are his grieving wife an unknowing baby in arm and three beautiful young children. Perhaps there is hope, suggested by the sunlight on the sad procession.
Luna probably knew El Greco’s El Entierro del Conde de Orgazand certainly the celebrated work by Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans. The Courbet was exhibited at the 1850-51 Salon, an enormous panting famous as the pioneering work of the Realism Movement showing ordinary people in ordinary situations but on the scale of history painting. El Greco highlights the miraculous appearance of San Esteban and San Agustín and Courbet’s the priest, mayor, and judge. Luna spotlights the children, as Titian does in Vendramin Family Venerating a Relic of the True Cross.
Singapore’s exhibit brings together an unprecedented four of the seaman-painter’s masterpieces: La Muerte de Cleopatra, La Mestiza, Les Ignorés, and Avant Garde.
Notes: (a) Now in the National Museum, Spoliarium was purchased by the Provincial Council of Barcelona and was given by Spain to the Philippines in 1958. El Pacto de Sangre is at Malacañang and a version of España y Filipinas at the Lopez Museum and Library; (b) The Escuela Nautica de Manila is the present Philippine Merchant Marine Academy in Zambales; (c) The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle; and (d) La Muerte de Cleopatra is in Madrid and both Les Ignorés and Avant Garde in Vilanova i la Geltru. Two versions of España y Filipinas are in the exhibit, one from the National Gallery Singapore Collection and the other from the Lopez Museum and Library. El Greco’s painting is in Toledo, Spain; Courbet’s in Paris’ Musee d’Orsay; and Titian’s in London’s National Gallery of Art.
Comments are cordially invited, addressed to [email protected]