The piece featured here is titled Le Volcan Taal, 1886, by Antoine-Alfred Marché (1844-1898). A description of Marché is in our previous installment 10.20.
Taal Volcano is a large caldera, a cauldron-like hollow sinkhole, filled by Taal Lake in the province of Batangas. It is one of the most active volcanos in the Philippines.
The first image (above) is the full illustration. There is smoke, gas and ashes being emitted into the air from three points in the volcano. Judging by the year of this piece, this could be depicting either the eruption on July 19, 1874, which involved an eruption of gases and ashes that killed all the livestock in Luzon, or November 12-15, 1878, where ashes emitted covered all of Luzon.
To the far left and far right, there are three probably European observers studying the eruption. In the foreground, we see three men fleeing the scene.
In the second image (above), we have a closer look at the three men fleeing, who appear to be working class native Filipinos dressed similarly. They all wear red work Barong Tagalog with their sleeves rolled up, dark work pants with the legs rolled up, and straw salakot on their heads.