Herois Anònims, 1891 by Juan Luna

About the artwork Painted around 1891 and exhibited at the Champs-de-Mars Salon, this large-scale canvas depicts the street funeral of a poverty-stricken old man in Paris, surrounded by working-class mourners in an autumnal urban setting. Also known as Les Ignorés and Heroes Anónimos, the work belongs to Luna's social realist period, during which he documented the lives of the urban poor under industrial capitalism. It was among the paintings that earned Luna membership in the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. About the artist Juan Luna was a Filipino painter, sculptor, and political activist who became one of the first Filipinos to achieve international recognition in the European academic art world. He is best known for the Spoliarium, which won the gold medal at the 1884 Madrid Exposition of Fine Arts.