Bank of the Pasig river, Manila

After some success exhibiting his work in Manila in 1876-8, Hidalgo left the Philippines for Spain in 1879 as a pensionado in Fine Arts of the Ayuntamiento of Manila. In Spain, he won a silver medal in the 1884 Madrid Exhibition of Fine Arts, which, with Juan Luna's gold medal in the same exhibition, inspired the ilustrados of the Propaganda or Philippine Reform Movement. He concentrated on genre and history painting for the rest of his career, moving from Madrid to Rome and then settling in Paris for his last twenty years. He returned to Manila only once, in 1912, for just six months. His Barca de Aqueronte (1887, Museo Nacional de Pintura, Madrid), included in the Exposición General de las Islas Filipinas in Madrid in 1887, went on to win gold and silver medals in Barcelona, Paris and Madrid, and is representative of his later work.