José Honorato Lozano

Lozano was the son of a lighthouse keeper in Manila Bay. He grew up in Sampaloc, Manila outside the walled city of Intramuros. A local commentator, Rafael Diaz Arenas, remarked as early as 1850 that Lozano was "a watercolourist without rival". Lozano also painted in the conventional costumbrista tradition as a means of supplying the demand for souvenirs of Manila to foreign visitors. He also painted in oils and the Spanish government commissioned him to depict episodes from the history of Spanish rule in the country to be displayed during a fiesta in the district of Santa Cruz, Manila in 1848. José Maria A. Cariño, author of José Honorato Lozano: Filipinas 1847, surmises that Lozano may have been trained by Chinese painters or Filipino painters skilled in Chinese painting techniques. A folio of Lozano's watercolors surfaced in a 1995 episode of Antiques Roadshow (the UK edition) with appraiser Peter Nahum. The album had been commissioned by Emile Nyssens, and was sold at Christie's in 1995 for 265,000 British pounds; and a Spanish marquesa by another—not unless there were two or three separate albums floating around in Europe. But that folio appraised by Nahum went on to sell for GBP240,000 at a later auction. Legarda was sold for a record PHP17.52 million (USD362,412.41), becoming the most expensive artwork sold by the artist internationally.

• Name — José Honorato Lozano • Born — 1815 or 1821 • Birthplace — Manila, Captaincy General of the Philippines • Died — 1885 • Field — Painting • Movement — Letras y figuras