THE "Original" RIZAL EXECUTION PICTURE, AUTHENTIC OR FAKE?

The execution by firing squad of José Rizal was captured in a photograph attributed by modern-day Filipino historians to Manuel Arias Rodríguez. However, the picture does not bear the signature MA that appears on most of this photographer’s works. There is also some controversy regarding the authenticity of the shot.

Austin Craig credited Mr. Dumas [not Manuel Arias!] as the photographer and creator of the so-called "original" execution photograph of Rizal that appeared in his book "The Story of José Rizal, The Greatest Man of the Brown Race" published in 1909.

P.O.

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THE RIZAL EXECUTION PICTURE IS A BIG FRAUD!

by Pio Andrade

"The picture is the only known photograph of Rizal’s execution. The picture has been reproduced so many, many times in books and popular publications that its image is deeply imprinted in Filipino minds.

But is the picture authentic? This question, it seems, has never been seriously entertained. I have, however, stumbled on many articles on the execution written or told by eyewitnesses of the historical event. These articles, half of them in Spanish, and unknown to Rizal biographers, shed light on the question. The known Rizal execution picture is of doubtful authenticity.

Professor Austin Craig, the foremost authority on Rizal, related the provenance of the execution picture in the article “I Saw Rizal Shot!” in the Dec. 27, 1924 Philippine Free Press.

According to Craig, the picture “was taken by a Mr. Dumas, a French-Spaniard, who was an old resident of the city. When the Spanish military authorities found that Mr. Dumas had taken a picture, they tried to seize the plate, but he buried it in a hole in a stone wall and filled in the opening with cement. The plate was dug out after the American occupation.”

The Rizal execution picture later became the property of Col. Juan Dominguez, the chief of the Manila secret service force in the early ’30s according to Isidro Retizos article “Where Rizal Fell” in the Dec. 29, 1932 issue of Graphic.

The article described how the exact place where Rizal fell was determined by four eyewitnesses to the event: Manila Mayor Tomas Earnshaw, a corporal of the 70th Regiment, and two soldiers of the Spanish volunteer corps. Dumas’ picture was used to find the exact spot.

Werner Weinmann, Swiss citizen and a 30-year resident of the country, brother-in-law of Filipino patriot Jose Alejandrino, and an eyewitness to Rizal’s execution, strongly disputed the genuineness of the execution picture in his letter written in Spanish to the Free Press which was printed in the Jan. 24, 1925 issue.

ABSURD

Weinmann wrote: “That unique picture of Rizal’s execution taken by a certain Mr. Dumas, French-Spaniard, according to your article is ABSURD. First, because this Dumas is Elzingre Dumas whom I know being another Swiss citizen, young, and whom I know never carried a camera in his life.

Second, for him to have taken that supposed picture, it was necessary for him to enter the military square which was impossible, given the strict order. And third, because the soldiers which formed the military cordon and the firing squad, were all dressed in navy blue, and should appear dark, not light, as they appeared in the supposed picture.”

Weinmann supplemented his letter with his own sketch of scene of the execution at the Luneta.

Extant pictures of the Luneta in 1886 or 1896 support Weinmann’s belief that the Rizal execution picture was a fake. First, the Luneta esplanade from 1886 to 1896 had no trees; whereas, the execution picture shows many trees between the lampposts.

Second, Weinmann’s sketch and the 1886 picture show that there was a file of stones encircling the Luneta at that time but which is absent in the execution picture. The file of stones forming the curb of the Luneta then is amplified by this line from Weinmann’s letter: . . . “Blood running to inflame with red the surface of one square meter of ground and over the stones that circled the Luneta.”

Third, the lampposts in the execution picture are taller and lighter in color than the lampposts in the 1886 photograph. Being lighted by gas, the lampposts were short, and being made of iron, they should appear dark in picture.

Another argument against the picture: Could a box camera, the only camera Dumas could have used, produced a panoramic and well defined picture as the alleged Rizal execution picture?

WRONG HAT

When I related my findings casting doubts on the genuiness of the execution picture to my friend Victor Buencamino, he told me that before the war he had seen Rizal’s hat and shoes enclosed in a glass case in the home of Don Leoncio Lopez, son of Narcisa Rizal, sister of the hero. The hat was not a derby and it was not black.

“At Victor’s urging, I visited Mrs. Carmen Consunji, the daughter of Don Leoncio Lopez. Lola Mameng confirmed that the hat, which was destroyed during the war, was not a derby and it was not black. It was gray. The gray color could be ascribed to the bleaching of the original black by underground burial, which, however, would not affect the shape of the hat. This is another compelling proof against the authenticity of the execution picture which shows Rizal’s hat as a derby.

Based on available evidence, the Rizal execution picture is a fraud, a big fraud."

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