Paris
Thanks for the prize for his brother Antonio – Philippine biographies for a contest for Igorrote[1] writers – The lone contestant – Rizal did not allow the inclusion of his biography – Juan Luna also wants his to be dropped – The biographies in La Solidaridad are contraproducentum – Juan Luna, member of La Societé Nationale de Beaux-Arts – The stay of Filipino students in Madrid should not be unnecessarily prolonged – Our artists – M. Zaragoza, director of the Escuela de Pintura.
* * *
Paris
8 August 1891
Juan Luna
Dear Rizal,
I have received you letterr and the prospectus of the School of Arts of Ghent. A thousand thanks.
I am also thanking you for the prize of Antonio. He told me that he has written biographies of Filipinos for a contest for Igorrote writers and upon submitting them on the day fixed, it turned out that there was no other work but his. So that there was no fun at all in awarding him the prize and for that reason I thank you, because he does need the 50 pesos. What I regret is that you have proposed and made it a condition that your biography be dropped. In case it is printed, I on my part would also have my biography omitted, for it is written by a brother, that is, by a member of my family.
I believe that you should not object that yours be published, for, in my understanding, a biography has nothing fictitious and false and the merits should be expounded such as they are.
I believe that the cause is not what at one time we, that is, I in behalf of Trinidad, wrote you that the biographies in La Solidaridad are contraproducentum, for they were like self-praise, and if it is for what you say in your letter, I have more reason to have mine dropped.
It is true that they have made me a member of La Societe Nationale de Beaux-Arts,[2] an appointment which I did not expect and which gives me the advantage of exhibiting as many as 10 pictures at the Champ de Mars, without going through the jury, which is very strict in admission.
A thousand thanks for your congratulations. Every morning I go to the Abbey of St. Denis; it is very pretty and has very fantastic effects, the effect of the glass windows.
I am waiting for my parents’ reply so that Antonio may come to Paris or go to Brussels. You know already that I am of the opinion that the Filipinos should not stay in Madrid longer than is necessary for their university studies and this is because they cannot practice in Manila with French or German degrees.
With regard to the artists you see already what happened to Villanueva and Sucgang;[3] what is regretful is that the same thing may happen to V. Francisco, and Asuncion. M. Zaragoza[4] has been appointed Director of the Escuela de Pintura in Manila. I bet that they have taken into account his stay in Rome.
Luna
03-639 [Reformists]
[1] Igorot, meaning Filipino, it is the name of a cultural minority living in the mountains of northern Luzon.
[2] A breakaway group of artists . The members of this society considered the old Societe des Artisted Francais to be outmoded, while the Societe des Artistes Independants that had seceded from it in 1884 were to them “too avant-garde to be academically competent and disciplined.”
[3] Telesforo Suegang , Filipino painter, whose best known work is an oil portrait of Rizal, which, at the time of writing (1961), wa s the property of Mrs. Paz Zamora Mascuñana , daughter of Dr. Felipe Zamora, a contemporary of Rizal. It is currently in the Rizal Shrine Fort Santiago.
[4] A fellow pensionado of Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, both hailing from the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura in Manila.