José Honorato Lozano (1821-1885)

The family is depicted squatting around a low wooden table and sharing a traditional meal of soup and morisqueta (white rice boiled in water). Large earthenware jars probably containing water flank the table. For a similar watercolour by the artist, see Abalarte Subastas, Madrid, 9 July 2015, lot 1109 (part).
Lozano was born in Manila, the son of the lighthouse keeper at Manila Bay. He was active as a painter in the 1840s and was remarked on as 'a watercolourist without rival' by a local commentator Rafael Diaz Arenas in 1850. He produced many studies of local types and costumes, as well as Filipino landscapes and his celebrated letras y figuras, to supply the demand for souvenirs of exotic Manila for visitors to the islands.