Rizal’s poignant letters to mom and sister from Dapitan exile to be auctioned off for at least P1 million apiece
Four letters of Jose Rizal, mainly written from his exile in Dapitan and addressed to his sister and mother, will be auctioned off by Leon Gallery as part of its annual auction with the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) on March 5.
The oldest of the letter is dated Oct. 12, 1891 and addressed to Maria, Rizal’s eldest sister. Written from Hongkong in Tagalog on a single sheet of paper front and back, he tells Maria that he and their father and eldest brother Paciano “are doing fine here.” He had just published then El Filibusterismo, and perhaps wary of the reaction of the Spanish colonial authorities, he tells his sister of his plan to quit the Philippines and go to Borneo: “We have hopes of moving to Borneo to live there and engage in farming.”
The second and third letters are written from his exile in Dapitan in mid-1895. Also written in Tagalog, Rizal thanks Maria for sending him “chocolate, sweets, and cigarettes and tea.”
He also asks Maria to tell their father that if he were coming to visit him in Dapitan, to bring along a 'velocipede,' the precursor to the bicycle.
He asks Maria to advise his nephew Moris, Maria’s son, to learn English: “Please tell Moris to speak English so that he would not forget it.”
In his other letter to Maria from Dapitan, Rizal sounds resigned to his exile, perhaps helped along by the arrival of “Miss B,” that is, Josephine Bracken.
He also asks Maria to tell their father that if he were coming to visit him in Dapitan, to bring along a “velocipede,” the precursor to the bicycle.
“If they will come here and can endure our situation,” Rizal writes, “I would not wish to leave this place anymore and I would just engage in farming as long as they live.”
The fourth and last letter is to his mother, Teodora Alonso. Dated June 3, 1896, the letter is in Spanish and Rizal addresses his mother as “mi muy amada madre,” which translates to "my beloved mother."
He tells her that “Miss B” is leaving for Luzon for a little rest and she will go there bearing various gifts for the family, including $25 for his parents. He apologizes for not sending more “because I have a lot of expenses.”
He adds a list of what he wishes to be sent him: three sacks of rice, one of flour, several kilos of sugar and coffee.
He assures his mother that while he’s gotten sick, he has recovered and now “knows more about the kind of fever that runs here.”
Floor price of each letter is P1 million.
Visual arts
The visual arts auction will raise funds for the ACC, which grants art residencies and fellowships to rising Filipino visual and performing artists. Previous beneficiaries include National Artist for Painting Joya, National Artist for Music Jose Maceda, Grace Nono, and Nes Jardin.
Highlight of the auction is the bid-out of Juan V. Luna’s “Odalisca” (or “Odalisque”), an 1884 watercolor-on-paper that shows the inner sanctum of an Oriental harem.
The 25.5 by 36.5 inch work, signed and dated “Roma 1982,” was done during Luna’s long stay in Rome. Around that time he also painted “Death of Cleopatra,” which won the silver in the Madrid fine arts exposition in 1981, and “Spoliarium,” which won the gold in the same event three years later.
“Odalisca” and another Luna, the pen-and-ink-on-paper “Portrait of a Woman,” are part of the famous collection of Dona Nene Tuason Quimson, whose late husband was at one time Philippine ambassador to the Court of Saint James.
Also from the collection are two works by Luna’s contemporary, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo (1855-1913): a pastel-on-board misty “Landscape”; and two charcoal-with-chalk-highlights-on-paper drawings, “Portrait of the Lady” and “Young Boy.”
The first ever national artist Fernando Amorsolo (1892-1972), an auction superstar, is represented by several works, including “Intramuros,” an oil-on-canvas landscape showing the Walled City with the barely perceptible twin spires of the old Our Lady of Lourdes church of the Franciscan Capuchins that was destroyed by the war; and the 1926 oil-on-wood “A Typical Filipino Beauty,” which the auction catalogue calls “a Filipina Mona Lisa.”
Other important artists
Another auction darling is Anita Magsaysay-Ho’s (1914-2012) whose “Untitled (Women Feeding Chickens) is expected to attract fierce bidding. The oil-on-canvas folk scene utilizes her trademark modernist “Inkblots” style,” which the later artist herself once said “is impossible to duplicate.”
Other national artists represented in the auction are Napoleon Abueva, Ang Kiukok, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera, Victorio Edades, Joya, Cesar Legaspi, Arturo Luz, Vicente Manansala, J. Elizalde Navarro, and Hernando Ocampo.
“Untitled” by Betsy Westendorp
“Seaside Embankment” by Jose Joya
“Procession” by Manuel Baldemor
“Intramuros (Our Lady of Lourdes Church) by Fernando Amorsolo
“Diwata of the Blue Mountain” by Prudencio Lamarroza
“A Cremation in Ubud, Bali” by J Elizalde Navarro
“Untitled” by Betsy Westendorp
“Seaside Embankment” by Jose Joya
“Procession” by Manuel Baldemor
“Intramuros (Our Lady of Lourdes Church) by Fernando Amorsolo
“Diwata of the Blue Mountain” by Prudencio Lamarroza
“A Cremation in Ubud, Bali” by J Elizalde Navarro
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Modern masters in the auction are President Medal of Merit awardees Juvenal Sansò and Betsy Westendorp, Lee Aguinaldo, Augusto Albor, Lito Antonio, Tam Austria, Manuel Baldemor, Norma Belleza, Charito Bitanga, Roberto Chabet, Florenco Concepcion, Gabriel Custodio, Romulo Galicano, Prudencio Lamarroza, Antonio Leano, Diosdado Lorenzo, Romulo Olazo, Onib Olmedo, Ramon Orlina, Mario Parial, Nena Saguil, Mauro Malang Santos, Pablo Baens Santos, Romeo Tabuena, Leo Valledor, Lydia Velasco, Hugo Yonzon Jr., Oscar Zalameda, and Fernando Zobel.
Leading contemporary artists in the auction are Ambie Abano, Andres Barrioquinto, Elmer Borlongan, Annie Cabigting, Marina Cruz, Alfredo Esquillo, Bernardo Paquing, Don Salubayba, Rodel Tapaya, and Ronald Ventura.
Auction will be held on March 5 at 2 p.m. at Leon Gallery, Eurovilla 1, Legazpi Village, Makati. Auction catalogue available at https://leon-gallery.com/.