Most people meet José Rizal as a novelist and reformist — but he also trained seriously in the visual arts. As a boy in Manila he studied drawing and painting at the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura, apprenticed under master-carvers and drawing teachers, and later kept up his art while studying in Europe.
Only a small handful of his paintings and color works are documented today; many were sketches or crayon studies, and a number were lost during the Second World War. What survives, however, tells us a lot about Rizal’s eye, technique, and affections.
Below is a researcher’s guide to the best-attested paintings/colored works by Rizal and their present status.
Catalogue of known paintings
Portrait of Saturnina Rizal (oil on canvas, c. 1878)
- Subject/notes: His eldest sister “Neneng,” likely Rizal’s only surviving oil portrait. Painted when he was “about 17.”
- Where it is now: Exhibited by the National Museum of Fine Arts and widely cataloged in connection with the Rizal Shrine (Fort Santiago, Intramuros).
Dapitan Church Curtains / “Holy Week backdrop” (oil on canvas, 1894)
- Subject/notes: A large colonnaded scene painted in Dapitan at the request of Fr. Vicente Balaguer; once kept at the Ateneo museum.
- Where it is now: Destroyed during World War II (after earlier safekeeping in Ateneo).
Landscape on mother-of-pearl shells (oil on shell, 1890s)
- Subject/notes: Miniature landscape(s) painted on paired shells in Dapitan; gifted to Doña Leonor Valenzuela, later in the possession of Doña Margarita Valenzuela.
- Where it is now: Private hands / unpublicized location (documented provenance up to the Valenzuela family).
Spanish Coat of Arms (watercolor, 1867)
- Subject/notes: Painted during the fiesta of San Rafael in Calamba.
- Where it is now: Location unrecorded in public catalogues.
Allegory on a pair of porcelain vases for the New Year (oil on porcelain, 1886, Berlin)
- Subject/notes: A decorative allegory painted on porcelain bases while in Berlin.
- Where it is now: Location unrecorded in public catalogues.
Christ Crucified (crayon, 1875)
- Subject/notes: Crayon “painting/drawing” (2-D work) frequently listed among Rizal’s early devotional studies.
- Where it is now: Location unrecorded in public catalogues.
Immaculate Conception (crayon, 1874)
- Subject/notes: Another early devotional crayon work (often mis-typed as “1974” in secondary lists; the year is 1874).
- Where it is now: Location unrecorded in public catalogues.
Portrait of Miguel Morayta (crayon, 1885, Barcelona)
- Subject/notes: Portrait of the Spanish historian/professor and liberal intellectual whom Rizal admired.
- Where it is now: Location unrecorded in public catalogues.
Why so few?
Early sources and museum notes agree that many works by and about Rizal were lost in the 1945 Liberation of Manila, and a number of juvenilia or private gifts (like the mother-of-pearl paintings) remained in family collections. That’s why museums emphasize the rarity of the Saturnina oil and why much of Rizal’s visual output survives today as sketches, inks, and sculpture rather than finished easel paintings.
Where to see Rizal’s art today
- National Museum of Fine Arts (Manila) – Gallery V hosts Inspiring the Nation, Dr. Jose Rizal: The National Hero in Art, which has featured the oil portrait of Saturnina and other Rizaliana. Check current gallery rotations before visiting.
- Rizal Shrine / Museo ni José Rizal – Fort Santiago (Intramuros) – A dedicated museum of manuscripts, sketches, memorabilia, and works by and about Rizal; commonly associated in guides with the Saturnina oil and other visual materials.
Why these works matter
Taken together, these pieces show Rizal’s disciplined draftsmanship (the crayon studies), warmth for family (the Saturnina portrait), ingenuity in materials (mother-of-pearl), and community service (the Dapitan backdrop). They also remind us that he moved comfortably among Manila’s artists and trained seriously as a young man—one reason his novels teem with painterly description and careful staging.
