Lot 523: RADEN SARIEF BUSTAMAN SALEH (Indonesia 1807-1880)

Lion and tiger fighting over prey
unidentified laquer seal (lower left)
oil on canvas
30 x 38 in. (76 x 96 cm)

Raden Saleh was the student of A. A. Payen, a Belgian artist and was working under the influence of 18th century European Romanticism, notably Theodore Gericault and Eugene Delacroix. As the first known native of the Dutch East Indies who painted in the Western style, he is often considered as a pioneer of Indonesian painting. In fact, his mastery of the Western skills is regarded as the East Indies equivalent to Western achievements.

From 1839 onwards he went on an educational tour through Europe and stayed away for ten years. With his noble stature, his gracious manners and his oriental looks that were hitherto unknown to the European nobilities, he was received with hospitality and was commissioned to do many portraits at various European courts.

However, it is the compositions of hunting-scenes with wild animals that truly interest him and mark him as one of the finest artists. These are paintings that emphasized action, turbulence, drama and heroism - the quintessential elements of the Romanticist tradition which maintained fascination with the mysterious, the dark, the spectacular and the wild.

"He builds up his oeuvres to his characteristic and typical works in which men and animals play the leading role versus the ominipresence of Nature"
(De Loos-Haaxman, Raden Saleh in Den Haag, 1965, pp. 74-75)