Paintings of the Philippine Colonial Tradition of Portraiture, at the second floor of the National Museum of Fine Arts, exhibits more than 30 portraits that showcase the status of the living and memories of the dead. The portraits were the masterpiece of painters coming from two generations – Severino Flavier Pablo (1805 – 1875), Justiniano Asuncion y Molo (1816 – 1896, a prize student of Damián Domingo in Academia de Dibujo y Pintura), Simon Flores Y de la Rosa (1839 – 1902), Isidro Arceo (1840 – 1900), Hilarion Asuncion y Eloriaga (ca. 1840 – ?), Vicente Villaseñor (1825 – ?) and other unknown artists.

This gallery features paintings that convey self-representation, aspiration, and likeness, among other desires and projections that characterize 19th century portraits found in the Philippines.

The works of 19th-century Filipino sculptors, notably Isabelo Tampinco y Lacandola, as well as his contemporaries and artistic successors whose works are distinguished by a strong academic and neo-classical style, including Isabelo’s sons Angel and Vidal, Graciano Nepomuceno, Anastacio Caedo, Florentino Caedo and Guillermo Tolentino.