1876 / Oil on canvas / 105.4 x 83.8 cm / Artist: Antonio Malantic / Leandro V. Locsin collection

The oval portrait of Inocencia Francia of Laguna is one of the best-known paintings of Malantic. It conforms to the conventions of the ilustrado (educated) portraits commissioned by the new entrepreneurs in the latter part of the 19th century. It is painted in the miniaturist style in which the exquisite refinements of costume, the embroidery, and the transparent fabric and textures are rendered with painstaking skill as in miniature paintings—all this with the aim of extolling the new material prosperity of the class that benefited from export-crop agriculture as landlords, merchants, and agents of the foreign trading houses.

Malantic took great pains in capturing to perfection the delicate embroidery on the transparent flaring sleeves and pañuelo or kerchief, as well as the satiny texture of her striped maria clara skirt. Inocencia Francia shows off to the viewer a fine gold necklace that she holds between delicate tapering fingers unspoiled by manual work. The marble-topped table, by which she is seated, indicates her social background and provides the opportunity for an incidental still life, an enamel vase holding a bunch of roses, symbol of elite beauty.

Inocencia’s sister Soledad also posed before Malantic. In her portrait she is shown sitting before a piano as she looks at the viewer, her hands on the keys as though about to demonstrate her skill with the instrument that was a mark of privilege. Soledad’s portrait is as masterfully rendered as Inocencia’s.