AESTHET — INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY #3

Planting Rice — Fabian De La Rosa

1.) Fabian De La Rosa — a Filipino painter born on May 5, 1869. He was an uncle and mentor to the Philippines’ national artist in painting, Fernando Amorsolo, and to his brother, Pablo. He is regarded as a “master of genre” in Philippine art.

2.) In Fabian De La Rosa’s “Planting Rice”, Filipino men and women are illustrated, planting rice in a vast field. Various colors are present but the color that dominates the painting is green since the setting is on a lush green field. Some of them wear what we call “bandana” and some of them wear salakot. It can also be seen that Filipino women wear the traditional clothes.

3.) The artist wants to emphasize the Filipino experience from the fields of labor. It serves as an interpretation of Filipino life and it shows how life is and how everything is done through hard work and patience especially now that we are living in a very different and modern world where technology and science is present to help us instantly produce the products and outputs we want.

4.) I felt the hardships delivered into the physical labor done b the women in the painting. Knowing that the time when Fabian De La Rosa painted this work of art was also the period when the Americans colonized our mother land. During the reign of the Americans, racial discrimination was present and the inequality of men and women. During those days, women were given no dignity and were treated as pets and slaves. For me, this may be the reason why the artist decided to create the painting. His sole purpose was to let the observers open their eyes and be aware of the sacrifices done by our brave Filipino women. I was mesmerized with Fabian De La Rosa’s work.

5.) The painting shows the sacrifices done by the Filipino women since they were maltreated years ago by those who colonized our country. It shows how they strived hard in order to overcome the trials in their lives.