The carabao, the Philippine water buffalo, was the foundation of Filipino agriculture, used to plow fields, haul carts, and carry loads across the archipelago. It remains a national symbol of rural Filipino life and labor.
José Honorato Lozano documented this subject as part of his Tipos del País watercolors, a body of work produced in the mid-nineteenth century recording the animals, occupations, and daily life of Philippine society. The El Carabao depicts the water buffalo central to Filipino farming, recording the animal that powered rural labor. Lozano worked primarily in Manila and produced illustrations that served as visual records of Philippine society for both local and foreign audiences. His work is considered among the most detailed and culturally specific visual documentation of the Philippines in the Spanish colonial period.
This print preserves a record of the carabao, the animal at the center of Filipino agricultural life.
Available as a fine art print
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