He also apprenticed under his uncle, Simón Flores y de la Rosa, a well-known painter of portraits and church interiors from the nineteenth century.

[8] Three years into his training de la Rosa's father died, forcing the young painter to drop out of the school in order to help feed his family.

[9] In 1893, he entered the Escuela Superior de Pintura Escultura y Grabado at the age of 24 where he received training from Lorenzo Guerrero and Miguel Zaragoza.

[2][4] Even after his death, de la Rosa was recognized and was given the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan (Guide of the Arts and Culture) by the City of Manila in 1968.

[2][4] An exposition about the paintings of de la Rosa was held at the Jorge B. Vargas Museum of the University of the Philippines, in Diliman, Quezon City, on January 14, 2007.

The presentation was given the title "Fabian De la Rosa (1869-1938) Retrospective Exhibition," and was managed by the University of the Philippines with the assistance of the Spanish Program for Cultural Cooperation and Filipiniana.net, a part of Vibal Publishing House, Inc.[1][4][13][14]