Rizal's Long Lost Self-Portrait May Have Been Found

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We found Rizal's first selfie.

And no, it wasn’t taken before the Eiffel Tower, or at the Hotel Inglés in Madrid, or on the streets of Heidelberg. And it isn’t so much a capture as it is the photograph’s solemn kinsman: the wooden likeness.

A wooden bust of Rizal, attributed to the National Hero himself, has just recently resurfaced. The likeness is made of two joined pieces of found wood from the Batikuling tree—a species widely found in Laguna and favored by master artisans from the town of Paete, widely known to be the cradle of woodcarving for centuries.

It is believed that Rizal carved the self-portrait in Calamba during his Christmas break in 1879. Because he was allegedly just eighteen years old when he sculpted the portrait, the bust does not document his moustache. Hewn into the wood is his young, gaunt face, his head angled slightly to the right, in the same attitude and angle in a famous photograph of the young Rizal, who was said to have favored the pose because it softened a jutting chin. His sister Maria once confided to writer Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil that Rizal disguised his imperfections: his uneven shoulders with good tailoring, and his “slightly prognathous” face by presenting his better profile.

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Photo of Jose Rizal at 18 years old in 1879—the angle of his face matches the profile we see on the bust.

PHOTO: Celestino Palma III

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It is a well-known fact that sculpting wasn’t just a passing fancy for Rizal. As a young man, he studied carving in Manila under Romualdo de Jesus, an internationally renowned sculptor of his time, as well as with other established sculptors.

It is a well-known fact that sculpting wasn’t just a passing fancy for Rizal. As a young man, he studied carving in Manila under Romualdo de Jesus, an internationally renowned sculptor of his time, as well as with other established sculptors.

By the time he had left for Madrid, Rizal was acknowledged as a talented craftsman—one whose talents were highly regarded by important sculptors such as Bonifacio Arevalo, Marcelo Nepomuceno and Isabelo Tampinco. In 1888, Rizal sculpted a plaster bust of Felix Pardo de Tavera which was exhibited at the Salon de Paris—a high academic honor given that the salon showcased the work of titans like Rodin, Gauthier, Fosse and Posson.

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From first glance, and at every angle, the life-sized bust is every bit what one would imagine in an encounter with Rizal at 18: a thin, smooth-skinned face, the signature hairstyle, and eyes seemingly squinting, grimly, into a distance. One may easily see in it the countenance of a boy who knows he has a prodigious future ahead of him.

The bust takes pride of place in Jose Caancan’s studio in Paete, Laguna.

PHOTO: Celestino Palma III

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The other encounter, of course, is with Rizal the creator himself: the man to whom the sculpture is attributed, whose hands personally put two pieces of found wood together and saw his own face in the composite material.

The third encounter is with the tantalizing certainty of its authenticity. The piece is not signed by its creator—its only imprint is an inscription on the bottom assumed to indicate the year it was carved: 1879.

Jose Caancan’s woodcarvers’ shop where he trained three generations of Paeteños in the art of sculpting.

PHOTO: Celestino Palma III

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In 2013, businessman and art collector Celestino Palma III discovered the bust—as such discoveries often go—in the unlikeliest of places. The story he tells about the discovery runs like a Fake Or Fortune episode on Netflix (artifact is found, lost, affirmed, and contested in cyclical fashion).

While visiting his daughter in Santa Barbara, California, Palma discovered two wooden reliefs of a Filipino man and woman in an antique shop. They were carved by renowned Paete Sculptor Jose D. Caancan—a man who, it would later be revealed, was Rizal’s student in Dapitan.

Front view of the bust. The tilt of Rizal’s face softens his chin.

PHOTO: Celestino Palma III

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The split in the bust indicates two pieces of wood cobbled together.

PHOTO: Celestino Palma III

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Since the carvings had not been authenticated, Palma decided to trace Caancan’s living heirs. His search led him to the Caancan home in Paete, where he met Gloria Caancan—the sculptor’s daughter-in-law (Jose Caancan had adopted Gloria’s husband Gregorio late in life). While the two discussed how to authenticate the carvings, something else caught Palma’s attention:

“Aling Gloria noticed that I was looking at the laminated formal picture of Jose Caancan holding a wooden bust,” Palma says. “She volunteered to explain that the bust was carved by Dr. Jose Rizal and was given to Caancan when the latter suddenly left Dapitan to become a medic in Cuba (during the Spanish-American War).” During his lifetime, Caancan was so attached to the bust that it was the first thing he thought to save when Japanese forces razed Paete during World War 2. He also took the bust around with him during processions, parties, and carving sessions in Paete.

The hero’s prominent chin is clearly from an opposite angle.

PHOTO: Celestino Palma III

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The split in the wood

PHOTO: Celestino Palma III

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Jose Caancan met Rizal during the hero’s exile in Dapitan. Rizal taught him Spanish and sculpting. In Patricia Laurel’s book Dapitan Schoolboy, Caancan is mentioned as having been in charge of Rizal’s clothes and toiletries. He was Rizal’s carver, barber, and possibly his tailor. Someone living so close to him would be a natural heir to the hero’s personal effects—many of which were brought to Rizal by one of his sisters.

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Rizal’s Dapitan years came to an end during the Spanish-American war—a turn of events that inspired him to volunteer as a medic in Cuba. Before he left, he had bequeathed certain effects to his students and relatives. Among the most noteworthy conferrals was a bed bequeathed to his first student Jose Aseniero (who later became Governor of Zamboanga)—and the bust he left with Caancan.

An inscription on the bottom assumed to indicate the year it was carved: 1879.

PHOTO: Celestino Palma III

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Caancan went on to return to Paete, filled with stories of his hero, the wooden souvenir tightly clutched then and ever. He would go on to teach sculpting to three generations of Paeteños and would be internationally recognized in competitions. The bust would be passed on to his heirs, authenticated by the National Museum, and even cited in a transcript of historian Alice Guillermo interviewing at least one of Caancan’s students.

This discovery is thrilling for a number of reasons. If it is indeed a Rizal sculpture, as all accounts seem to indicate, it shows the skill and mastery of Rizal the sculptor, an aspect often overlooked in favor of his novels and other writings. It also captures Rizal at his most idealistic, having presumably been carved in the same year that Rizal wrote “A La Juventud Filipina,” a soaring romance of a poem where Rizal praises the genius of the Filipino youth and describes them as being the hope of our motherland.

If it is indeed a Rizal sculpture, as all accounts seem to indicate, it shows the skill and mastery of Rizal the sculptor, an aspect often overlooked in favor of his novels and other writings.

Both poem and bust capture Rizal’s best angle—the first his wildly idealistic heart, and the second the perfect tilt of his Insta-ready face. At 18, Rizal was keen to spread the idea that the Filipino youth were the hope of the nation.

PHOTO: Celestino Palma III

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Palma has invested five years of research into the sculpture, and he himself is clear-eyed about various counter-opinions: some experts think the work is too good to be Rizal’s work, and that the bust looks like it was made by Caancan himself.

But other facts and assertions tip the balance well: in 1879, the Paete sculptor would only have been two years old. In addition, master craftsmen from Paete, such as Fred Baldemor, Luis Ac-ac, and Paloy Cagayat, claim that the strokes on the wood are not of the Paete school, and that the marks indicate schooling from Manila or Madrid.

Celestino Palma III holds the bust in the Caancan home in Paete, Laguna. Beside him is the sculptor’s daughter-in-law Gloria Caancan.

PHOTO: Celestino Palma III

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The Paete artisans believe Caancan could not have made the bust himself, and that Rizal’s skills far exceeded his.

There are sheaves of documents, photographs, and accounts that further brighten the certainty of its authenticity. But perhaps its most telling feature is the fact that it is a likeness of Rizal himself. In Indio Bravo, The Story of Jose Rizal, Asuncion Lopez-Rizal Bantug and Sylvia Mendez-Ventura write of how his sisters saw a five-year old Jose Rizal sculpting a piece of clay in his own image, and teased him about it, calling him hambug, or a braggart.

It might certainly be so: that at so young an age, he knew he was depicting the face of a future hero. Or he might have simply been doing what every young Filipino today does when he takes a selfie—documenting a youth full of sureness and promise and determination.

Jose Rizal's First Selfie Recently Resurfaced in Private Collection

Photo of Jose Rizal at 18 years old in 1879—the angle of his face matches the profile we see on the bust.

The bust takes pride of place in Jose Caancan’s studio in Paete, Laguna.

Jose Caancan’s woodcarvers’ shop where he trained three generations of Paeteños in the art of sculpting.

Front view of the bust. The tilt of Rizal’s face softens his chin.

The split in the bust indicates two pieces of wood cobbled together.

The hero’s prominent chin is clearly from an opposite angle.

The split in the wood

An inscription on the bottom assumed to indicate the year it was carved: 1879.

Celestino Palma III holds the bust in the Caancan home in Paete, Laguna. Beside him is the sculptor’s daughter-in-law Gloria Caancan.