PROPERTY FROM THE DR. JAIME HERNANDEZ COLLECTION

Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist

ABOUT THE WORK

Arustic painting—the earliest work by Manansala to come to the market—depicting an idyllic barrio scene converges the paths of two prominent men: the one a celebrated visual artist, the other a man of unwavering public service. Dr. Jaime Hernandez was born on July 11, 1892 in Libmanan, Camarines Sur to Don Leon and Dolores Hernandez. The Hernandezes were an affluent and influential Bicolano family. However, Jaime would be orphaned at the tender age of four due to the successive deaths of his parents. But this did not become a hindrance to his burgeoning intelligence and passion. In fact, in his second year in high school, Jaime passed a government examination for civil service eligibility. He sojourned to Manila and entered government service as a clerk in the Bureau of Audits in 1911. Jaime then pursued higher education at the Philippine School of Commerce at night, studying bookkeeping and stenography. Jaime would later be appointed as Deputy Provincial Auditor of Capiz from 1914 to 1916, concurrently serving as District Auditor of Albay, Pangasinan, and Cebu. Due to his superior managerial abilities, U.S. President Herbert Hoover named him Insular Auditor—a title reserved exclusively for Americans—in 1921. While in government service, Jaime enrolled at the Philippine Law School. He finished his law degree in 1926 and placed fourth on the 1927 bar examination. Jaime would continue pursuing higher law studies, obtaining master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Santo Tomas. With an honorific title now attached to his name, Dr. Jaime Hernandez became the first Filipino Auditor General, having been appointed by President Manuel Quezon during the Commonwealth Period. After the Second World War, President Osmeña designated Dr. Hernandez as Secretary of Finance—a post he would continue to serve under the presidencies of Roxas, Quirino, Magsaysay, and Garcia. Magsaysay sent Dr. Hernandez to Japan in 1954 to head a survey mission tasked to assess the rightful war reparation claims of the Philippines. The result was the Hernandez Report, the legal basis of the Philippine Reparation Claim that resulted in Japan's indemnity to the Philippine Government from 1956 to 1976. Aside from being a statesman, Dr. Hernandez was a promoter and patron of tertiary education. He instituted two prominent centers of higher learning: The University of the East in Manila (1946) and the University of Nueva Caceres in Naga (1948), the first university in Southern Luzon. When Manansala produced this painting of a barrio scene, Dr. Hernandez was the country's Auditor General. The work was then acquired sometime in the late 1950s to early 1960s by Dr. Hernandez from Manansala himself. It was once hanging above the dry bar cabinet in the former's personal library. At the time of this painting, Manansala was an illustrator for the Philippines Herald. Yet, an undying homage to the countryside pervaded Manansala's artistic preoccupation. This fascination could be traced back to his college days at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts. During those days, Fabian de la Rosa was the school's director and the foremost figure in Philippine painting. Although student dialogue with him was limited to casual school greetings, de la Rosa was greatly admired by all the students, including Manansala himself. He influenced a whole generation of artists whose common denominator was faith in the pastoral as the wellspring for art. Given this, Manansala developed a penchant for the solitary lifestyle in the countryside. From the genesis of his career, it was evident that Manansala would linger in his folk roots. His Filipino sensibility would blossom from this pursuit, visually echoing the ideality of bucolic living and fostering the conviction that it is in the countryside where the spirit of our collective identity as a nation lives on and endures.