Julius Teh Limpe (1927–2014) was a Filipino painter, businessman, inventor, and musician, remembered as a modern Renaissance man whose art embodied vitality and joy. He was born in San Nicolas, Binondo, the Chinatown district of Old Manila, on February 1, 1927.
From a young age, Limpe showed a natural gift for drawing. At six, he was already sketching with pencil and crayons, creating posters for school and capturing images from memory and textbooks. He later recalled: “Art was my first hobby. I would just pick up objects in my mind and pieces in my textbooks to draw… When I studied in Indiana, I also enrolled in four or five art subjects. Art became my minor.”
Limpe pursued higher education in the United States, where he became the only business student to cross over into the art department at Indiana University. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management, while minoring in Fine Arts, a dual path that reflected his lifelong balance between entrepreneurship and creativity.
As an artist, Limpe was known for his modernistic expressionist style, painting with bold colors and energetic brushwork. His favorite subject was fish, inspired by his childhood hobby of breeding them, which he transformed into vibrant canvases symbolizing freedom and abundance. He also painted landscapes, flora and fauna, female nudes, and religious imagery.
Limpe exhibited widely, including at the Philippine Center New York, and was a member of the Saturday Group alongside Hernando Ocampo, Cesar Legaspi, and Ang Kiukok. His works remain celebrated for their spontaneity and meditative vitality.
