León Gallery’s The Kingly Treasures Auction: Félix Resurreccion Hidalgo’s ‘Portrait of Raimunda Chuidian Roxas‘

José Antonio later purchased a store in Escolta, Manila from a Basque merchant and named it La Puerta del Sol, which Ramon Zaragoza described in its heyday as “the most elegant and complete department store in the Philippines, specialising in silverware, chandeliers, household goods, clothes, toys, perfumes, et cetera,” all the accoutrements of fine living enjoyed by the upper class of 19th century Manila. Apart from running La Puerta del Sol, José Antonio also traded sugar, coffee, rice, tobacco, and abaca. Upon his demise sometime between 1869-1871, his wife, Silveria, and son, Telesforo Antonio took over the running his businesses

The burden of taking over his father’s businesses fell mostly on the shoulders of the young Telesforo Antonio Chuidian, born in Binondo, Manila on 5 January 1855, who was still a student at the Ateneo Municipal in Intramuros, Manila when his father passed away. Among his classmates at the Ateneo Municipal were Benito Cosmé Legarda y Tuason, who became Resident Commissioner of the Philippines to the US Congress, and Léon Ma Guerrero y Leogardo, the Philippines’ first licensed pharmacist. To attend to his father’s businesses, the young Telesforo quit school. He had his widowed mother, Silveria, three sisters, Raymunda, Candelaria, and Roberta, and later as many as 19 children to support. While he was said to have fathered 19 children, only 11 could be accounted for from three different women: his legal wife, a Dutch-Spanish mestiza named Juana Urbano, a Spanish mestiza named Dolores Cerrudo, and Sofia Lopez, a niece of José Rizal.

At 22, he was already an established businessman. Thereafter, he ventured into more businesses, establishing a business partnership together with his uncle, the lawyer Manuel Buenaventura, and sisters, Candelaria Chuidian de Marcaida of San Jose de Navotas and Raymunda Chuidian de Roxas of 21 Calle San Vicente, Binondo, Manila. The partnership was named Chuidian, Buenaventura y Cia for purposes of exporting sugar, coffee, rice, abaca, and indigo dye, as per incorporation papers dated 29 December 1882 found at the National Archives. The partnership likewise provided crop loans to the coffee growers of Lipa and the sugar planters of Balayan and Nasugbu, all in the province of Batangas, with land as collateral. As most of these landowners could not repay their loans, Telesforo and his business partners were able to acquire at least four large haciendas in Batangas. To expand their real estate portfolio, they invested in valuable real properties in Manila.

Telesforo lived in style. A portrait made by the Filipino artist, Felix Martinez y Lorenzo dated circa late 19th century depicts a flattering image of Don Telesforo Antonio Chuidian in formal, European fashion with perfectly groomed hair, moustache, and beard. Shown as one of the highlights of Léon Gallery’s Filipinos in the Gilded Age landmark exhibit in 2016, the portrait was purchased by Don Telesforo’s descendant, Ricky Chuidian Delgado, to keep this valuable memento of their patriarch as a family treasure. Dr Laureano Viado, an eminent Filipiniana aficionado, noted having seen Don Telesforo grow his fingernails, which in Chinese culture was a symbol of preeminence in high society. He developed a liking for Arabian horses and was a prominent member of the elite Manila Jockey Club. He was also one of the founders of the Club Filipino and became its first president. According to José Alejandrino, Don Telesforo’s son-in-law, José Rizal modeled the character, Kapitan Tiago, in his novel, Noli Me Tangere, after Don Telesforo himself.

Don Telesforo had at least three large houses for his extended family. One in Binondo, Manila at 23, Calle Anloague (the current Juan Luna Street), which according to Ambeth Ocampo’s article, “A Peek into Kapitan Tiago’s Home,” was hurriedly sold to Don Telesforo by the prominent Binondo merchant Don Balvino Mauricio after the latter was implicated in the 1872 Cavite Mutiny and a wave of arrests ensued, prompting him to escape to Hongkong where he died an impoverished and forgotten man. The house, which was described in detail as Kapitan Tiago’s house in Noli Me Tangere, was beautifully depicted in a Letras y Figuras artwork done by José Honorato Lozano dated 1861, formerly from the collection of Don Alejandro “Anding” Roces. Second was a large Bahay na Bato in Balayan, Batangas where Don Telesforo once served as town councillor. The house was later sold to the Apacible Family. And the last was the former mansion of Don Enrique Maria Barretto y Ycaza at Calle General Solano which was later acquired by Don Telesforo. Beside the house was the San Miguel Brewery of which Don Enrique was the founder and Don Telesforo a stockholder. A large and beautiful Renaissance Revival Style aparador made by the Ah Tay Workshop from the 1890s was formerly installed in the master bedroom of that house which was Don Telesforo’s last home. The three-storey mansion was designed by Architect Félix Roxas y Arroyo in the 1860s.

Don Telesforo was not only rich, he was a well-respected man who was “a civic-spirited citizen and was always ready to extend assistance to the government in its financial and social problems. (For his services to the government), he was honoured with the distinction of “Caballero de la Real Órden Americana de Isabel la Católica,” according to his biographical entry in E Arsenio Manuel’s Dictionary of Philippine Biography, Vol 1.

However, it was later discovered that Don Telesforo was also one of the top financiers of the Philippine Revolution together with Don Mariano Limjap, Crisanto de los Reyes, and Pedro Pablo Roxas y Castro. Upon the outbreak of the Revolution, Don Telesforo was implicated, arrested, and imprisoned in Fort Santiago for about six months. His businesses suffered. However, upon the establishment of the First Philippine Republic, he was given a hand in financial matters and was named a member of the Commission on Paper Money and together with Don Pedro Paterno and Mariano Limjap, were authorized by the government to sign the paper bills issued by the Republic. On 4 July 1899, he was appointed jefe de administracion de 1a classe with the right to use the signs and insignias of a brigadier general. Upon the collapse of the First Philippine Republic, he was imprisoned anew, this time by the American authorities but was released not long after.

While the Roxas family’s origins, as discussed in Salvador Araneta’s essay, “The Roxas Lineage,” published in the book, 1030 R Hidalgo: The Family, is “shrouded in the mists of time,” with origins going as far back as the first century after the discovery of the Philippines “when we find the name Francisco de Rojas, son of Pedro de Rojas and Inés Martinez, a native of Granada who sailed for the Indies in 1527.” Salvador Araneta further noted that “the Christian names of Francisco and Pedro have been repeated among the descendants of the family in the Philippines, and might well indicate the original ancestry of those who bear the surname in the (Philippine) islands.” As further recounted by Araneta in the same essay: “On June 23, 1695, records in the Archives of the Indies at Seville revealed that Antonio Fernandez de Roxas landed in Manila as the third pilot of the galleon San Jose from Acapulco. He was 24 years old... (and) born in the Canary Islands… At age 20, (he) piloted a tender to a ship carrying prisoners from New Spain or Mexico to Florida. Once in Manila, he remained there for the remainder of his life. He rose to chief pilot and ten years later, to Admiral of the galleon, Nuestra Señora del Rosario. He was given an encomienda in Palawan and became governor general of the Palao or Pelew Islands in 1715. He married twice in Manila, the second time with Teresa Gutierrez y Escaño. (A contemporary document cites that “he thus became related with the best families therein.”) Salvador Araneta, in the same essay. mentions “a third person of that surname in insular records: Pedro Rojas, an oidor or Justice in the Royal Audencia who in 1585 denounced to King Philip II of Spain that ‘nothing else has wrought such ruin in this country as the trading and trafficking (in the galleon trade) of those who govern it.” Araneta concluded though that “it has not been possible to determine which of these three Rojases was the early ancestor of those who bear that family name in the Philippines.”

Araneta further mentions a sketch made by the late Enrique P Brias Roxas of his family tree, which stated that his grandfather, Mariano Maximo Roxas, was “born in Mexico of Spanish parents.” However, records at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran where Mariano Maximo studied from the earliest grades, show that he was born in Taguig, now a part of Metro Manila. Mariano’s father was Juan Pablo Roxas, who according to a family tree sketched by another family member, was “un Vizcaino” or of Basque origin, just like several prominent families in Manila: Araneta, Ynchausti, Roces, Elizalde, Ayala, et al.

Juan Pablo Roxas, married to Juana de Baes Romero, had two sons, Raimundo and Mariano Maximo. Mariano Maximo Roxas married Ana Maria de Ureta and had four sons: Antonio, Vicente, Mateo, and Domingo.

As recounted in Eduardo Lachica’s Ayala, The Philippines Oldest Business House, Don Domingo Roxas (1782-1843) was “the country’s earliest industrialist in spirit, if not in achievement, for he was far ahead of his time.” In 1834, this far-sighted land-owner and entrepreneur, and his trusted employee, Antonio de Ayala, signed the articles of partnership of Casa Roxas, the oldest commercial house of Spanish origin in the Philippines. The company has the distinction of having started the oldest industrial plant in the Philippines, the Destileria y Licoreria de Ayala y Compania located in Calle Echague, Quiapo, Manila near the bank of the Pasig River. Lachica continued: “At a time when farming was considered too demeaning an occupation for the Spanish upper class, he was elbow-deep in the cultivation of sugar and cotton in his Batangas and Laguna properties. He introduced the use of machinery for the processing of sugar, cotton, and lumber. He started what seemed to his friends to be a bizarre scheme involving the smelting and refining of iron ore… At another time, Roxas showed interest in the potentialities of the gold mines in Paracale; they turned out to be one of the richest in the history of Philippine gold mining... Early in his career he made what may be regarded as the key move in the chain of events that led to the accumulation of the Roxas fortune. He acquired a narrow strip of land jutting out into Batangas Bay and named the property Hacienda Calatagan (measuring around 13,000 hectares) after the nearby township. The sugar press (trapiches) that he built on that property led to the idea of a distillery to manufacture spirits on a commercial basis… Like many a later Roxas or Ayala, Don Domingo came upon much suffering and tragedy in his life… his wife, Maria Saturnina Ubaldo Roxas, died when their children were quite young. Then, for various political reasons, he was three times arrested and jailed…Before his daughter, Margarita, could put the release orders she obtained from Queen Isabela, Don Domingo died in prison (in 1843).”

Upon Don Domingo’s death, Casa Roxas was dissolved and a new partnership was formed under the name of Roxas Hijos. His children, Mariano Roxas (1820-1864), José Bonifacio Roxas (1818-1880), and Margarita Roxas de Ayala (1815-1869) served as capitalist partners while Antonio de Ayala (1805-1876) as industrial partner.

José Bonifacio managed Hacienda Calatagan and other interests in Batangas. Mariano managed the properties in Laguna. While Margarita managed the distillery. Among the three siblings, it was Margarita who wielded the upper hand and consolidated the partnership by marrying their industrial partner, Antonio de Ayala, in 1844.

In 1864, José Bonifacio Roxas pulled out of the partnership to go into business by himself. The remaining partners—Mariano, Roxas, Margarita Roxas de Ayala, and Antonio de Ayala—reorganized themselves into Roxas Hermanos. When Mariano died, only Margarita and her husband, Antonio de Ayala were left and the company was named Casa Ayala.

The partnership acquired more properties over the years—4,000 hectares of nipa palm land in Luzon, 400 hectares in Panay, and a vast tract of potential farmland in San Pedro de Makati, plus the opening of coal mines in Naga, Cebu and Camarines.

To take care of their vast plantations, the Roxas siblings entrusted the management of some of these properties to their trusted Roxas relatives. For their nipa plantations in Capiz, their cousin, Antonio Roxas, son of Cayetano Roxas (the brother of Don Mariano Maximo Roxas), was hired as overseer. Antonio’s son, Gerardo, was the father of President Manuel Acuña Roxas. For their plantations in Batangas, which included the Lian and Nasugbu estates comprising 27,000 hectares acquired from the colonial government by José Bonifacio Roxas in 1845 plus the Calatagan Estate earlier acquired by Don Domingo Roxas, it was José Bonifacio Roxas’ son, Pedro Pablo Roxas y Castro, and later his widow, Carmen Ayala de Roxas, one of Doña Margarita Roxas de Ayala’s three daughters.

Félix Roxas y Fernandez, whose reminiscences of the Roxas family and their elite circle were compiled in the book, The World of Félix Roxas, considers their line descended from Antonio Roxas y Ureta as the “poor branch” while those descended from Domingo Roxas y Ureta, namely Margarita Roxas de Ayala, José Bonifacio Roxas, and Mariano Roxas, the forebears of the current Ayala, Zobel, Soriano, and Roxas clans, as the “rich branch.”

Belonging to the “poor branch” of the family, some of the children of Antonio Roxas y Ureta, including Félix Roxas y Arroyo, and Felipe Baldomero G Roxas, benefited from the largesse of their rich Roxas relatives.

Felix Roxas y Arroyo, son of Antonio Roxas y Ureta and Lucina Arroyo, was the first Filipino architect to earn a formal degree in architecture. According to his biographical sketch in the book, Ang Mundo ni Maestro, the young Félix Roxas y Arroyo left Manila for India in 1840 and stayed there for three years. Later, he proceeded to England and Spain where he studied and worked from 1843-1857. He studied at the Real Academia de Nobles Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, Spain. Apart from major commissions such as churches, notably the Santo Domingo Church and San Ignacio Church in Intramuros, Manila; government buildings like the Aduana and the Ayuntamiento; and commercial buildings like the Edificio Barretto, better known as the Edificio Tuason in Escolta, he also built some of the most beautiful mansions for his Roxas relatives, namely Margarita Roxas de Ayala’s Summer House in Santa Ana, Manila which became the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion de la Concordia; the beautiful Pedro Pablo Roxas and Carmen Ayala de Roxas House in Calle General Solano, San Miguel, Manila which was originally his own home; the Enrique Brias de Coya House in Calle Herran, Manila for his daughter, Lucina Arroyo Roxas and her husband; and the Don Andrés Ortiz de Zarate and Camila Roxas Ayala House at Calle General Solano, San Miguel, Manila along the Pasig River which was later acquired by HSBC as housing for their top executives. Designing those beautiful houses for his Roxas relatives must have been his way of giving gratitude for their help in his studies in Europe and for their patronage of his architectural practice.

Felipe Baldomero G Roxas was born in San Fernando de Dilao (now Paco), Manila on 29 February 1840. According to his biographical sketch in the book, Discovering Philippine Art in Spain, he was orphaned at a young age and was adopted by his grandparents, Antonio Roxas y Ureta and Lucina Arroyo Roxas. At the time of his adoption, his grandparents were already blessed with fifteen children, the older ones of whom were over twenty years older than him. Among his adoptive siblings were the architect, Felix Roxas y Arroyo; Juan Roxas, the father of the unfortunate Francisco Luis Roxas y Reyes who was one of the thirteen martyrs of Bagumbayan and great grandfather of the Archbishop of Reims, Monseigneur Éric Marie de Moulins de Amieu de Beaufort; and Mariano Léon Roxas married to Carmen Gomez de Arce, the parents of Rosa Roxas married to Jose Zaragoza de Aranquizna, the parents of Carmen Zaragoza, wife of Don Gregorio Araneta, and Natividad Roxas, wife of Demetrio Tuason, among others.

According to Regalado Trota Jose’s biographical essay, “Felipe Roxas: The Fine Art of Living Well,” published in the book, 1030 R Hidalgo, Legacy in Art, the young Felipe obtained his first art lessons at the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura, whose manner of instruction was patterned after that of the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. Its reopening in 1845 was due largely to the efforts of his cousin, Mariano Roxas y Ubaldo (1820-1864), the youngest son of Don Domingo Roxas. Among the school’s esteemed students were artists Juan Luna, Félix Resurreccion Hidalgo, Justiniano Asuncion, and Rafael Enriquez. Another cousin, Mariano’s older brother, the wealthy businessman and landowner, José Bonifacio Roxas (1818-1880), generously granted Felipe a scholarship to Spain and France. In Madrid, he studied at the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and was influenced by his mentor, Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz (1815-1894), to specialize in landscapes. Upon moving to Paris, he studied painting and piano. After training for a year under Henri-Pierre Picou (1824-1895), a French academic painter of the Second Empire and one of the founders of the Neo-Greco school, along with Gustave Boulanger, Jean-Léon Gérome, and Jean Louis Hamon, he entered the École Supérieure de Beaux-Arts in 1860. It was in Paris where Felipe found his element and would soon go back to his beloved city.

In 1870, he returned to Manila where he taught painting and music at his atelier at No 84 Calle San Jacinto (now T Pinpin Street), Binondo, Manila. According to Trota Jose in his biographical essay previously referred to, “he was the only other professor listed, together with Agustin Saez and Lorenzo Rocha, in the Manual del Viajero Filipino (1875) and the Anuario Filipino of 1877… During this time, Felipe also handled a course on Dibujo lineal, topografico, de adorno y figura at the San Juan de Letran College. By 1884, he was teaching the same course at the University of Santo Tomas. Among his pupils in 1889 was José Ma Asuncion, grandson of the sculptor Leoncio Asuncion and a future professor of the School of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines, whom he advised to go abroad for further studies.”

As written by Kiko del Rosario in his essay “Felipe Roxas, Choza de Nipas,” “the painter Fabian de la Rosa remembers (Felipe) Roxas as a landscapist and the most practised copyist among Filipinos. He is grouped among late 19th century painters who exhibited the proper application of certain sciences allied to painting within the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura... Santiago Albano Pilar describes the painter as a consummate realist... (while) Regalado Trota Jose presumes that his (adoptive) brother, Félix Roxas, the architect who designed the fifth Santo Domingo and the second San Ignacio churches in Manila, inclined the younger Roxas to place buildings in the foreground of his paintings…” The painter (professor and art historian) Dominador Castañeda, in his book, Art in the Philippines, considered Felipe Roxas as “decidedly a landscape painter. Landscapes with architectural features were his forte.” Regalado Trota Jose in his biographical entry on Felipe Roxas in the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art, 2nd edition, Visual Arts, theorised that Felipe’s architect adoptive brother, Félix Roxas, “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.”

Among Felipe Roxas’ few surviving and/or documented paintings which featured landscapes with architectural features are Church of Antipolo (1889) formerly from the Alfonso Ongpin Collection, now in the PAGREL Collection, Casa y puente de Paete (n.d.), also from the PAGREL Collection, Antipolo Street (n.d.) found in Zoilo Galang’s Encyclopedia of the Philippines (1935), and An Old House/The Roxas House in Batangas (n.d.) from the S. Garcia Roxas Collection. Other paintings which depict more bucolic settings are the almost identical Choza de nipas (1883) from the Biblioteca Museu Victor Balaguer Vilanova i la Gelsrúb and Casa indigena en Baliuag (1883) from the PAGREL Collection, both depicting nipa huts, which Regalado Trota Jose believes to be the precursors of the sunset and bahay kubo painters of the first half of the 20th century which culminated in the “sun-drenched views of Fernando Amorsolo. Less typical are his watercolour painting, Despues de la merca (1885), depicting an old lady tired after a trip to the market, and The Baptism (n.d.), a rare painting of a church interior from the S. Garcia Roxas Collection which may be a copy of a painting by another artist. Other rare paintings by Felipe Roxas have recently emerged at auction sales. One, entitled Manila Landscape (n.d.), was auctioned by Duran Arte y Subastas in Madrid in 2023 while another entitled Milan (n.d.) was auctioned by Leon Gallery in 2016. Perhaps one of his most beautiful paintings is Holy Friday Procession (1866), formerly from the Ronnie A. Leonardo Collection in Paris, which depicts a religious procession in Manila amidst rows of bahay na bato mansions. Listed by Regalado Trota Jose’s essay in 1030 R Hidalgo, Legacy in Art are works done by Felipe Roxas in France which were mostly from the collection of his daughter, Consuelo Roxas Chuidian de Gomez: Cabeza de un joven vasco, Cabeza de un Monaguillo/Acolyte’s Bust, Patio de Musée de Cluny, Paris, Un Dia de Nieve, and Vista Interior del Museo de Luxemburgo, Paris. One painting, Fuente de Delacroix en les Jardins de Luxemburgo, Paris was said to be in the collection of Felipe’s Roxas relative, Don Enrique Zobel.

Felipe Roxas likewise did religious paintings. One oil painting, La Virgen, Jesus y San Juan was exhibited at the Exposicion Regional Filipinas in Manila. Roxas also did a portrait of Moses, a copy of a French painting, Saint Filomena, and the colouring of a copy-in-the-round of Murillo’s Inmaculada Concepcion del Escorial by Sotero Garcia for the main altar of the Manila Cathedral. It was destroyed during WWII.

It is not known exactly how Raimunda Chuidian y Chuaquico met her husband, Felipe Baldomero G Roxas. But with both the Roxas and Chuidian families owning and managing vast haciendas in Batangas and businesses in Manila, it is not far-fetched to believe that the two met in Batangas or Manila or were matched by their families.

No records have been found of their marriage either. However, on 9 January 1882, their unica hija, Maria del Consuelo Felisa Chuidian Roxas, was born, presumably in Manila.

By 1889, Felipe Roxas was back in Paris with his wife, Raimunda, and daughter, Consuelo, in time for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, held from 15 May to 6 November, in celebration of the centenary of the Storming of the Bastille which marked the beginning of the French Revolution. The main attraction was the 330-metre tall Eiffel Tower which stood triumphant over the Champs de Mars. Other attractions were the Galerie des Machines, the Palaces of Fine Arts and Liberal Arts, the pavilions of participating nations, and Charles Garnier’s History of Human Habitation.

Félix, Raimunda, and their daughter Consuelo took up residence at 6, Rue de Babylone, in front of the Bon Marché Square in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. As written by Regalado Trota Jose in his essay, “Felipe Roxas: The Fine Art of Living Well,” published in the book, 1030 R Hidalgo, A Legacy in Art:

“The Rue de Babylone was in a strategic location, being walking distance from the Musée Rodin, the Dôme and the Palais des Invalides, the Palais et Jardins de Luxembourg, and the artistic churches of St. Germain-des-Pres and St Sulpice. Don Felipe must have been very pleased with his home. Here he started a magnificent collection of books and paintings to Which he kept adding by acquiring one or two works of at least two French artists from the annual Salon des Beaux Arts held at the Champs-Elysées.

He maintained a regular schedule. Mornings he spent at the Louvre or any of the other nearby museums, especially the Museum of Contemporary Art in the former Musée du Luxembourg (different from the Palais du Luxembourg and located some distance across the river from it.) He enjoyed making copies of the paintings displayed… He also limned works of his own. Afternoons were reserved for his piano Lessons, when he could indulge in his favourite composer, Chopin. Don Felipe’s dinners were renowned throughout the Filipino community in Paris, for he was an artist of the kitchen as well as of the studio. He attended all the evening concerts, and was privileged to hear such great musicians as Sarasate and Paderewski. A close friendship developed between him and the musician Pierre Alexandre François Chevillard which lasted throughout his life. Chevillard was a composer of chamber music but was better known as the conductor of Lamoureux concerts, a position he obtained in 1897. These concerts, which were held at the Théâtre du Châtelet, the largest auditorium in Paris (then), were religiously attended by Don Felipe.

Indeed, the 1880s and the 1890s were an exhilarating time for the independent artist to be in Paris. Public taste for the over-sentimental, insipid, and often unimaginative Academic works displayed in the annual Salon des Beaux-Arts was still widespread. However, the appreciation for modern art was steadily growing since the Impressionists and others rejected by the Salon started to exhibit at the Salon des Refusés in 1863. The jeers and disdain which greeted the works of such artists as Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Edgard Degas had begun to have a hollow ring. It was a time of change, of beginnings and endings.”

Félix Roxas, Jr, the son of Architect Felix Roxas y Arroyo, in the book, The World of Félix Roxas, gives us glimpses into the life led by Felipe Roxas and his wife, Raimunda, while in France. The couple loved to travel and entertain visiting members of the family and friends. In his article entitled Lolita Marcili, Félix Roxas, Jr. wrote about the visit of Trinidad Ayala de Zobel (wife of businessman Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz) to Saint Jean de Luz (San Juan de Luz), a resort town near Biarritz and the Bay of Biscay in France:

“In July, after their tour of Europe, Trinidad Ayala de Zobel and her children (Enrique Zobel, Fernando Zobel, and Margarita Zobel Melian) arrived in San Juan de Luz (Saint-Jean-de-Luz) and were quartered in the upper floor of our building. The arrival of these newcomers at this coastal place Injected new life to the place. They gathered at the clubhouse at night and conceived entertainment such as fiestas, excursions, and dances with talented club members as participants. The relatives of the Ayalas came from Seville and even told Mr Amores came to visit with his children. And to see to it that none in the list was forgotten, even Don Felipe Roxas, who had been staying at No 6, Rue de Babylone, in front of Bon Marché square in Paris, for the last 18 years, also appeared at the gathering, accompanied by his wife, Raymunda Chuidian and his 15-year-old daughter Consuelo; they resided at Barrio Libur, Over 40 members of the family and relatives journeyed to Saint Jean de Luz in otter to welcome the newly arrived travellers from Manila.”

In his article entitled, “Life in San Juan de Luz,” Félix Roxas wrote about San Juan de Luz (Saint Jean de Luz) and described it as “a picturesque coastal town, just like Biarritz and San Sebastian, bordering the Gulf of Biscay. It has beautiful villages, and the neighbouring chalets and houses are comfortable, a fact that impels vacationists from the capital cities to rent them during the summer months to enjoy the country air for one or two weeks every year. It is located at the lower Pyrenees and the people–especially those from the country–speak the patois, a dialect derived from the Basque which no one except those who know Basque could understand. The suburbs are attractive and often visited by newcomers. The beach is clean and always crowded by bathers during the day.”

On 13th August 1898, after news was received that Manila was now occupied by the Americans, all the women of the Filipino colony in Saint Jean de Luz shed copious tears. Doña Margarita Zobel, who was to reign as queen of the dance that night, excused herself from the affair, while a group of twenty others did not attend. Felipe Roxas noted that “the last Filipinos to arrive from Paris were Felipe Roxas, his wife Raymunda Chuidian, and their daughter who had to lodge in one of the houses in Barrio de Sibour on the other side of San Juan de Luz. This family became popular because of a seven-colour parrot which always accompanied them on their trips and attracted attention everywhere they went.”

Another mention of Felipe Roxas and his wife, Raimunda was in the article entitled, “Nothing Could Be Done,” where Félix Roxas, Jr, exhausted by the intense questioning by Don Pedro Pablo Roxas and his friend, Ramon Abarca, about political events in the Philippines during lunch at Restaurant Duval in Paris, excused himself by saying that he was invited to a dinner with another cousin, Felipe, married to a Chuidian, at their Rue Babylone residence.

The most tragic account on Felipe Roxas and his wife, Raimunda Chuidian, can be found in the article entitled, “Madame Bertrami”:

“When the Philippine mission to Washington, DC in 1898 failed, one of its members, Dr José Lozada (of Batangas), was the last to arrive in Paris... Lozada was very well entertained by Felipe Roxas and his wife, Raymunda Chuidian, who went as far as to accompany him to Marseilles with their daughter, Consuelo. He decided to set sail from that port to Hong Kong on board one of the ships of the Messageries. On the day of his departure, Don Felipe invited him for lunch to the most famous French restaurant of Marseilles, the Chez Passot, which specialized in fish and seafoods.

No one could imagine the melodramatic incident that would occur there. During dessert, when everyone appeared to be having a good time, the host suddenly felt ill, stammered, and fell over the table. Being a physician, Dr. Lozada gave Don Felipe every form of help, which was in vain because the victim of cerebral attack did not respond to any treatment. Don Felipe lost consciousness and could not recognize anybody. Dr. Lozada’s ship was leaving at four that afternoon; he had his ticket and baggage properly taken care(d) of. And much as he disliked to, he had to bid goodbye to that sorrowful family who, aside from being far away from home, found itself suddenly in that hopelessly critical situation. After seeking the services of one of the most renowned doctors of the city, the wife decided to return to Paris and sent a telegram to Felipe Agoncillo, an intimate friend. On the following day, my friends and I met the grieving family at the railroad station. Don Felipe was still alive, but had only a few hours to live. He died in less than 24 hours at his residence on No 6, Rue de Babylone, in front of the Bon Marché Square.

That fatal bit of news reached all the friends of the Filipino colony in Paris. As has often happened in cases of this kind, when foreign names were often interchanged, many mistook Félix for Felipe as the person who had died, because Don Felipe was not very well known to people who had friendly relations with the Filipinos. This error produced pathetic effects upon the circle of our acquaintances, an error rectified by the many little notes I received from many persons felicitating me upon knowing that I was not the one concerned in that horrible tragedy. The mourning period caused us nine days of absolute isolation from social affairs but after the nine days, our normal routine of life was resumed.”

A record of his death was found in the French civil register which stated that Felipe Roxas died on 14 April 1899 at his 6 Rue de Babylone residence in Paris. The record further stated that his wsas born to Bonifacio Genaro Roxas and Maria Gatchalian and was married to Raymunda Chuidian and was fifty years of age. He was awarded a Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur. The other entries are not very legible.

His remains were temporarily buried at the Cimitière de Bagneaux, located southwest of Paris. His remains were later exhumed for transport and final burial at San Agustin Church in Intramuros, Manila where his grave marker could still be found with the following inscription:

R.I.P.
FELIPE BALDOMERO G. ROXAS
FALLECIO EN PARIS
EL 13 DE ABRIL DE 1899
A LA EDAD DE 59 AÑOS

It is not known if his widow, Raymunda, and daughter, Consuelo, left Paris immediately after Felipe’s passing. What is known from accounts of E Arsenio Manuel in his biographical entry for Telesforo Chuidian in his Dictionary of Philippine Biography, Vol. 1 is as follows: “In Feb. 1901, he (Telesforo Chuidian) sailed for Europe together with four children (Adela, Horacio, Telesforo, and Roberto)) and returned in Nov. 1902. He died the following year (11 April 1903) of tuberculosis of the larynx which he contracted in Fort Santiago (where he was incarcerated twice). His remains, which were first buried at the Cementerio General del Paco as stated in his 5th Death Anniversary announcement in El Renacimiento, are in the family mausoleum in Cementerio del Norte, Manila.

Did Raymunda and Consuelo stay in Paris for a few years after Felipe’s death and only sailed back to Manila together with Don Telesforo in November 1902? Did Don Telesforo and his children stay with Raymunda and Consuelo at 6 Rue de Babylone during their almost two-year sojourn to Paris?

Raymunda passed away at age 59 years not long after her brother’s death. Her grave marker could be found at the Sala de Profundis of the San Agustin Church with the following inscription:

RAYMUNDA CHUIDIAN Y DE ROXAS
59 AÑOS + 4 ABRIL 1905
TU HIJA

Surrounding a figurine of an angel was the inscription:

“CREO EN LA RESURRECCION DE LA CARNE”
(I BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY/FLESH)

Raymunda’s sister, Candelaria, married to Antonio Barretto de Marcaida, their brother Telesforo’s classmate, most probably at the Ateneo de Manila in Intramuros. They lived in Navotas. Candelaria was very close to Telesforo, helping him run the businesses of Chuidian y Cia. Candelaria and Antonio’s son, Orestes de Marcaida, married to Emilia Benita Solis of Lipa, Batangas, was an Aide-de-Camp of General Antonio Luna. Candelaria Chuidian de Marcaida lived a long life and passed away on 18 August 1934 at the age of 90. Her remains were interred at the Cementerio del Norte like her brother, Telesforo’s. Not much is known about their spinster sister, Roberta.

Felipe and Raimunda’s unica hija, Maria del Consuelo Felisa Chuidian Roxas, born on 9 January 1882, followed the footsteps of her father, Felipe, and became a painter. She married a Spaniard, Salvador Gómez Sanchez, on 10 October 1922 in Manila. They had three daughters, Emilia (who died very young), Paquita, and Maria. Paquita married a Spaniard named Victoriano Colodrón Morán (1906-1979) in Spain in 1935. Maria married Eugenio Marcalain and lived together with her mother, Consuelo, at 223 Calle Concepcion, Ermita, Manila until Consuelo passed away on 31 January 1966. Both sisters have descendants, some of whom live in Spain.

An annotated list of known art works of Felipe Roxas appended to Regalado Trota Jose’s essay, “Felipe Roxas: The Fine Art of Living Well,” published in 1030 R Hidalgo Legacy in Art, lists six artworks done by Felipe Roxas in France, five of which were in the collection of Consuelo Roxas Chuidian de Gomez, and one which belonged to the collection of Enrique Zobel. It is possible that the painting at hand, Portrait of Raimunda Roxas by Félix Resurreccion Hidalgo, signed and dated 1890, was brought home by Raimunda and her daughter, Consuelo, upon their return to Manila from Paris sometime in 1902 and may have been passed on to family members. Though it is not in the catalogue of paintings by Félix Resurreccion Hidalgo published in Alfredo Roces’ Félix Resurreccion Hidalgo & The Generation of 1872 (1995), a black and white photo of the portrait exists in the Chuidian Family Archives and was shared with the author by family members. Although the family knows that Raimunda was the subject of the portrait, they have no information on the portrait’s artist or its date which can only be seen when one examines the actual painting or a high resolution photo of it.

Just like the Portrait of Don Telesforo Chuidian y Chuaquico (late 19th century) by Félix Martinez y Lorenzo which was deemed lost and resurfaced in Léon Gallery’s Filipinos in the Gilded Age exhibit and auction, the resurfacing of Félix Resurreccion Hidalgo’s Portrait of Raimunda Chuidian Roxas must be another cause for celebration of Raimunda’s descendants who have been most generous in sharing information about their Abuelita Raimunda and their fascinating family history.

This article was by writer and historian Isidra P Reyes. León Gallery’s The Kingly Treasures auction is happening on November 30, 2pm at G/F Eurovilla, V A Rufino corner Legazpi Streets, Legazpi Village, Makati City

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