A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino

Due to an artistic drought on Don Lorenzo's part, the family has to make ends meet by relying on the financial support provided by their brother Manolo and sister Pepang, who were urging them to sell the house.

[7] Don Lorenzo, who refused to sell, donate, or even exhibit his self-portrait in public, was only content in staying inside his room, a stubbornness that already took a period of one year.

[3] The painting has attracted the attention and curiosity of journalists such as a family friend named Bitoy Camacho, and other obnoxious visitors pretending as art critics.

[5] Before the Second World War, many Filipino intellectuals and artists  – including painters, as personified by Don Lorenzo Marasigan  – searched for cultural enlightenment from Spain, the first imposer of colonialism and authority in the Philippines.

[5][7] After Joaquin wrote A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino in 1950, it was first published in Weekly Women's Magazine and Prose and Poems in 1952 and then aired on radio before being formally presented on stage in 1955.

The chorus consisted of opera singers Fides Cuyugan-Asencio, Armida Siguion-Reyna, Nomer Son, Robert Natividad and Gamaliel Viray.

[12][13] In 1997, Ma-Yi Theater Company staged the English version at Vineyard Dimson Theatre in New York City from July 26 to August 16, 1997, directed by Jorge W.

Antonio Aureada OP, staged the play as a tribute to both Nick Joaquin and the Barangay Theater Guild in various provinces and twice abroad—in South Korea in 2002 and in the US in 2004.

[6] The cast featured Ana Abad-Santos and Irma Adlawan-Marasigan alternating as Candida, Leisl Batucan as Paula, Joel Trinidad as Bitoy Camacho and Randy Villarama as Tony Javier.

[20] In 2015, Butch Nolasco produced and directed "PORTRAIT: Rediscovering a Filipino Film Classic," a documentary based on the recollections of Lamberto Avellana's daughter Ivi Avellana-Cosio on the making of the movie.