Félix Resurrección Hidalgo

Félix Resurrección Hidalgo studied at University of Santo Tomas and Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. The recorded working language is Spanish. The field of work recorded is painting. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are landscape. Works named in the authority record are La Laguna Estigia, La Parisienne and La barca de Aqueronte. Work by Félix Resurrección Hidalgo is recorded in the collections of Museo del Prado, Lopez Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer and National Museum of Anthropology.

Hidalgo was born in Binondo, Manila on February 21, 1855. He was the third of seven children of Eduardo Resurrección Hidalgo and María Bárbara Padilla. He studied law in the University of Santo Tomas, though he never finished it. His interests in the arts made him study art in Europe, from 1879 to 1881 under a scholarship funded by the Spanish government at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. He was also enrolled under Spanish painter Agustin Saez at the Escuela de Dibujo y Pintura. In 1876, he previewed his works, La barca and Vendedora de lanzones, among others, at the Teatro Circo de Bilibid before they were sent to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that same year. In 1878, he painted Los mendigos.

In 1877, Resurrección Hidalgo was awarded second placein the contest for best cover design for the deluxe edition of Fr. Manuel Blanco's Flora de Filipinas. In 1879, Hidalgo left for Spain as a pensionado in fine arts of the Ayuntamiento de Manila. His Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho, was awarded the ninth silver medal at the 1884 Exposición General de Bellas Artes in Madrid. This showed a group of boorish looking males mocking semi-naked female Christians, one of whom is seated in the foreground, with head bowed in misery. In the same exposition, Luna's Spoliarium was awarded a gold medal. In the Exposición General de las Islas Filipinas in Madrid in 1887, Hidalgo presented La barca de Aqueronte and Laguna estigia for which he received a gold medal. La barca was again shown at the Exposition Universelle in Paris and was awarded a silver medal by an international jury. In 1891, it was accorded a diploma of honor at the Exposición General de Bellas Artes of Barcelona. This painting also received a gold medal in the International Exposition of Fine Arts in Madrid during the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the Americas. He exhibited Adios del Sol, 1891 at the Exposición Internacional de Bellas Artes in Madrid in that year and El crepusculo at the Universal Exposition in Chicago. He showed both paintings again at the Exposición Artistica de Bilbao in August 1894. In the Exposición Regional de Filipinas in Manila in January 1895, Hidalgo was represented by his paintings done in the grand romantic manner. In April of the same year he exhibited Oedipus y Antigone, El violinista, Cabeza napolitana, Cabeza del viejo, Un religioso, and others at the Salon at Champs-Élysées in Paris. Hidalgo received a gold medal for his overall participation at the Universal Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri in 1904. His El violinista was individually accorded a gold medal. In 1912, he visited his relatives in Manila for six months, after which he hurried back to Paris to see his dying mother. The following year, Resurrección-Hidalgo died in Barcelona where he went to recuperate from failing health. His remains were brought to the Philippines, where it now lies entombed at the Cementerio del Norte in Manila.

La barca, 1876 Vendedora de lanzones, 1876 Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho, 1884 The Young Woman Sewing, 1885 Jesucristo, 1887 La barca de Aqueronte, 1887 La Laguna Estigia, 1887 La Pintura, Undated (c. 1890s) Adios del Sol, 1891 El crepusculo, 1893 Oedipus y Antigone, 1895 El violinista, 1895 Cabeza napolitana, 1895 Cabeza del viejo, 1895 Un religioso, 1895 Self portrait, 1901 Per Pacem et Libertatem, 1903

Several paintings by Hidalgo rank among the most expensive paintings in Philippine art ever sold at auction. In 2016, La Inocencia (1901) a portrait from the private collection of the Legarda collection, sold for PHP 40.88 million (US$823,695.35) at Leon Gallery in the Philippines. In October 2018, an earlier work from the Philippine period Pareja de jóvenes tagalos ante un rio (1879) was sold for PHP51.60 million (US$957,863.78) at Subastas Segre in Spain that served previously as the world record. Subsequently, in December 2018, an Untitled (Sailing off the Cliffs of Étretat in Normandy) (1909) was sold for a record PHP30.368 million (US$579,431.41) at Leon Gallery becoming Hidalgo's first work from his later period to surpass the PHP30 million mark. In 2019, La Pintura (1890s) painting by Hidalgo was sold for a record PHP 78.256 million (US$1.51 million) at Salcedo Auctions in the Philippines, becoming the most expensive artwork sold by the artist internationally.