Damián Domingo y Gabor (February 12, 1796 – July 26, 1834) was the father of Philippine painting. Domingo established the official Philippine art academy in his residence in Tondo in 1821.

Biography

Damian Domingo was born in

Tondo, Manila Tondo is a district located in Manila, Philippines. It is the largest in terms of area and population of Manila's sixteen districts, with a Census-estimated 631,313 people in 2015 and consists of two congressional districts. It is also the seco ...

and is a Chinese Filipino mestizo. He began his career as a painter specializing in miniature portraits and religious imagery. He also created albums of illustrations of native costumes. This he did primarily to sell to collectors. Such skills made Domingo one of the most famous and sought-after artists of his time in the Philippines. Domingo is regarded highly in the history of Filipino art and is credited with establishing academic courses in art in the Philippines.

Contribution to art

Damian Domingo's contribution to the development of art as an academic discipline in the Philippines was seminal. He took an important step toward his vision of making art more accessible in 1821, when he established a school for artists in his residence in Tondo. It was a major leap for the discipline in the Philippines. He also oversaw the growth and development of art as the director of the first official Philippine art academy. The academy was also possibly the first of its kind in all of Asia to teach the Western techniques of foreground, middle-ground, and background perspectives. The academy also explored other foreign artistic techniques, an approach that helped shape the careers of the new generation of Filipino artists. When another art school, named Academia de Dibujo, opened in 1823, Domingo was offered a teaching position by its founders, the

Sociedad Económica de los Amigos del País The ''Sociedades Económicas de Amigos del País'' (Economic Societies of Friends of the Country) were private associations established in various cities throughout Enlightenment Spain, and to a lesser degree in some of Spain's overseas territories ...

(Royal Economic Society of the Friends of the Country). Domingo later went on to serve as the director of the academy.

A new era

His term as director saw the introduction of non-discriminatory policies that conferred equal rights on the Indios, who until then had been mostly marginalized. Teaching techniques and the curriculum also underwent changes. The students began to be taught the techniques of drawing still life and the human form. The academy also trained students in colors and surfaces preparation and to paint in oil and aquarelle. The academy would have certainly reached new heights if it weren't for the premature death of Domingo, who died aged just 38. The academy wasn't able to maintain the high standards Domingo had set and subsequently closed in 1834. The few years that Domingo was at the academy did manage to produce some of the earliest Filipino artists trained in Western artistic traditions.

Auction history

To date, few works by Domingo survive today with three full albums of the ''tipos del pais'' are known to exist with two held in two prominent private collections in the Philippines, while a fully signed album dated between 1827 to 1832 by Domingo previously in the collection of American businessman

Edward E. Ayer Edward Everett Ayer (November 16, 1841 – May 3, 1927) was an American business magnate, best remembered for the endowments of his substantial collections of books and original manuscripts from Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native American ...

that was subsequently donated to the

Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics rel ...

. In 2019, an undated yet signed work by Domingo from the ''tipos del pais'' series previously from a private collection in the United States: ''Un Indio Noble de Manila'' sold for a record PHP3.74 million (US$71,824.44) at Leon Gallery in the Philippines, becoming the most expensive artwork sold by the artist internationally.

Paintings by Damián Domingo

File:Damian Domingo.jpg, ''Self-Portrait'', Undated, Paulino and Hetty Que Collection File:Catedra de San Pedro en Roma.png, ''La Catedra de San Pedro en Roma'', Undated, Heirs of Jaime V. Ongpin Collection File:Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario.png , ''Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario'', Undated, Heirs of Jaime V. Ongpin Collection File:Jose Maria Penarada DamianDomingo 1832.png , ''Portrait of Don Jose Maria Peñaranda'', 1832, Del Monte Collection File:Un Indio Noble de Manila DamianDomingo.jpg, ''Un Indio Noble de Manila'', Undated, Private Collection

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Domingo, Damian Filipino painters Filipino portrait painters Filipino people of Chinese descent People of Spanish colonial Philippines People from Tondo, Manila 1796 births 1834 deaths