Felipe Arroyo Rojas

Felipe Arroyo Roxas was an important painter of his time and educator at the University of Santo Tomas. More here: http://bit.ly/fAQ9hi.

From 1884 to 1889, he taught at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila. Only the following artwork of his survive:Casa indigena en Baliuag (Native House In Baliuag), Puente de Paete (Paete Bridge), Iglesia de Antipolo (Antipolo Church), and Despues de la merca (After Market Hours). In 1889 he migrated to Paris with his wife Raymunda and daughter; his descendants still live there.

FELIPE ARROYO ROXAS

ROXAS, FELIPE ARROYO b. Paco, Manila 1840 d. Paris 13 Apr 1899. Painter. He is the son of Antonio Roxas and Lucina Arroyo. He married Raymunda Chuidian. He was the brother of architect Felix Roxas. An alumnus of the academia de Dibujo y pintura, he taught such subjects as linear drawing, drafting, and design at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran. In 1884 up to the time he migrated to Paris, he taught at the University of Santo Tomas (UST). Among his students were Jose Ma Asuncion. whom he advised to refine his studies in Europe. Only a few paintings by the artist, have survived, namely, Casa indigena en Baliuag (Native House In Baliuag), Puente de Paete (Paete Bridge), Iglesia de Antipolo (Antipolo Church), 1889, and Despues de la merca (After Market Hours), all in the Pagrel Collection. In 1889 he left for Paris with his wife and children; his descendants still live there.

Roxas is regarded as a painter of buildings because of the three extant paintings and reproductions of numerous paintings now lost. This may have been the influence of his stepbrother, the architect Felix Roxas, who built the gothic Santo Don-Lingo Church destroyed during WWII Felix might have asked Felipe to draft the plans, facades, and interiors of the buildings he constructed. Thus Felipe’s paintings of architecture are firmly drawn, solidly defined, and enriched with a lot of architectural ornamental details. Casa indigena en Baliuag shows a lower middle-class house of the period with a steep roof of nipa, bamboo stairs outside the main structure, and window shutters also of bamboo. In the background is a rich upper-class house with stone walls, capiz windows, and tiled roof. These works were exhibited at the Exposicion Regional de Filipinas in 1895.