Raden Saleh

This article is about the painter. For the crater on Mercury named after him, seeRaden Saleh (crater).

Raden Saleh Syarif Bustaman
ꦫꦢꦺꦤ꧀ꦱꦭꦺꦃꦯ꦳ꦫꦶꦥ꦳꧀ꦨꦸꦱ꧀ꦠꦩꦤ꧀ رادين صالح شريف بوستامن
Raden Saleh inc.1872
Born	Saleh Sjarif Boestaman c.1811 Semarang,Dutch East Indies
Died	23 April 1880(1880-04-23)(aged 68–69) Buitenzorg,Dutch East Indies
Known for	Painting, drawing
Notable work	The Arrest of Pangeran Diponegoro Deer Hunt View of Erupting Mount Merapi
Movement	Romanticism

RadenSaleh Sjarif Boestaman(Arabic:رادين صالح شريف بوستامن‎;Rādīn Ṣāliḥ Šarīf Būstāman,Javanese:ꦫꦢꦺꦤ꧀ꦱꦭꦺꦃꦯ꦳ꦫꦶꦥ꦳꧀ꦨꦸꦱ꧀ꦠꦩꦤ꧀;EYD:Raden Saleh Syarif Bustaman;c.1811 – 23 April 1880)was a pioneeringRomanticpainter from theDutch East IndiesofArab-Javaneseethnicity. He was considered to be the first "modern" artist from Indonesia (then theDutch East Indies), and his paintings corresponded with nineteenth-century romanticism which was popular in Europe at the time. He also expressed his cultural roots and inventiveness in his work.

Early life

Raden Saleh Syarif Bustaman was born in 1811 in the village of Terboyo, nearSemarangon the island ofJavain theDutch East Indies(present-dayIndonesia). He was born into a nobleHadhramifamily; his father wasSayyidHusen bin Alwi bin Awal bin Yahya, whose family had come to Java via Surat in India in the seventeenth century. He was the grandson ofSayyidAbdullah Bustam through his mother, Raden Ayu Sarif Husen bin Alwi bin Awal.Through his sister, Roqayah, Raden Saleh was uncle by marriage to the famous religious leaderHabib Ali Kwitang.

Travel to Europe

Raden Saleh,c. 1840, credited toFriedrich Carl Albert Schreuel

Young Raden Saleh was first taught inBogorby the Belgian artistA.J. Payen.Payen acknowledged the youth's talent, and persuaded the colonial government of the Netherlands to send Raden Saleh to the Netherlands to study art. He arrived in Europe in 1829 and began to study underCornelius KrusemanandAndreas Schelfhout.

It was from Kruseman that Raden Saleh studied his skills in portraiture, and later was accepted at various European courts where he was assigned to do portraits. While in Europe, in 1836 Saleh became the first indigenous Indonesian to be initiated intoFreemasonry.From 1839, he spent five years at the court ofErnest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha,who became an important patron.

From Schelfhout, Raden Saleh furthered his skills as a landscape painter. Raden Saleh visited several European cities, as well asAlgiers.InThe Hague,a lion tamer allowed Raden Saleh to study his lion, and from that his most famous painting of animal fights was created, which subsequently brought fame to the artist. Many of his paintings were exhibited at theRijksmuseumin Amsterdam. Several of his paintings were destroyed when the Colonial Dutch pavilionin Pariswas burnt in 1931.

Return to the Dutch East Indies/Indonesia

Photograph ofRaden Saleh's housein Cikini inc.1875–1885

Raden Saleh in 1872

Raden Saleh returned to Dutch East Indies in 1852,after living in Europe for 20 years. He worked as conservator for the colonial collection of government art, and acted as court painter to the Governors-General. He also painted portraits of members of the colonial elite – European administrators, the Javanesepriyayior thePeranakanChinese 'Cabang Atas' – as well as landscapes. Returning to Java, he expressed his uneasiness of living in the colonies, stating that "here, people only talks about coffee and sugar, then sugar and coffee" in one of his letters.

Upon returning, he married a wealthyIndoheiress of part-German extraction, Constancia von Mansfeld.His new wife financed the construction of Saleh'slandhuisor country house on the private domain (particuliere land) that the couple had acquired,Cikini.Saleh's house was inspired architecturally byCallenberg Castlewhere he had stayed during his European travelsc.1844. Surrounded by vast grounds, most of them were converted into public gardens in 1862, and were closed in the turn of the century. In 1960, theTaman Ismail Marzukiwas built in the former gardens. The house itself is still used today as aPGI Cikini Hospitalbuilding.

On his first wife's death, Saleh remarried to a young aristocratic woman ofYogyakarta Sultanate,Raden Ayu Danudirdja, in 1867 and subsequently moved toBogor,where he rented a house near theBogor Botanical Gardenswith a view ofMount Salak.He later took his wife to travel in Europe, visiting countries such as the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Italy. His wife however contracted an illness while in Paris, the exact illness is still not known, and was so severe that they both immediately returned to Bogor.She died on 31 July 1880,following her husband's death three months earlier.

Death

On Friday morning, 23 April 1880, Saleh suddenly fell sick. He claimed that he was poisoned by one of his servants, and subsequently died; however post-mortem examination showed that his circulatory system was disrupted due to a clot near his heart. Saleh was buried two days later in Kampung Empang, Bogor. As reported in Javanese Bode newspaper, 28 April 1880, his funeral was "attended by variouslandheeren[landlords] and Dutch officials, and even by curious students from nearby school. "

Painting

During his stay in Paris, Saleh metHorace Vernetwhose painting frequently took themes of African wildlife. Compared to Vernet, Saleh's painting seems to be more influenced by the romantic painterEugène Delacroix.This could be seen in one of Saleh's work,Hunting Lion,1840, which has similar composition to Delacroix'sLiberty Leading the People.However, Werner Kraus, a researcher in the Southeast-Asian Art Center ofPassau,Germany, said that Saleh "never mentioned Delacroix. Perhaps he saw Delacroix's, and possibly Vernet's, works during an exhibition."

The Arrest of Pangeran Diponegoro

Main article:The Arrest of Pangeran Diponegoro

The Arrest of Pangeran Diponegoro,1857,Merdeka Palace Museum,Jakarta.

Raden Saleh is particularly remembered for his historical painting,The Arrest of Pangeran Diponegoro,which depicted the betrayal of the rebel leaderPrince Diponegoroby the colonial government, thus ending theJava Warin 1830. The Prince was tricked into entering Dutch custody nearMagelang,believing he was there for negotiations of a possible cease-fire. He was captured through treachery and later deported.

The event had been previously painted by a Dutch painterNicolaas Pieneman,commissioned by Lieutenant GeneralHendrik Merkus de Kock.It is thought that Saleh saw this painting during his stay in Europe. Saleh made significant changes in his version of the painting; Pieneman painted the scene from the right, Saleh from the left. Pieneman depicts Diponegoro with resigned expression, while in Saleh's he appears to be outraged. Pieneman gave his painting the titleSubmission of Prince Diponegoro,while Saleh gaveThe Arrest of Pangeran Diponegoro.It is known that Saleh deliberately painted Diponegoro's Dutch captors with large heads to make them appear monstrous, as opposed to the more proportionally depicted Javanese.

Raden Saleh’s work has been regarded as a sign of incipient nationalism in what was then the Dutch East Indies / Indonesia.This can also be seen it the depiction of Diponegoro's men. Pieneman had never been to the Indies, and so depicted Diponegoro's men in a more Arabic fashion. Saleh's version has a more accurate depiction of native Javanese clothing, with some figures wearingbatikandblangkon.

Saleh finished this painting in 1857 and presented it toWillem III of NetherlandsinThe Hague.It was returned to Indonesia in 1978 as a realization of a cultural agreement between the two countries in 1969, regarding the return of cultural items which were taken, lent, or exchanged to the Dutch in the previous eras. Even though the painting did not fall under any of those categories, because Saleh presented it to the King of the Netherlands and it was never in the possession of Indonesia, it was nevertheless returned as a gift from theRoyal Palace of Amsterdam,and is currently displayed at theMerdeka PalaceMuseum inJakarta.

Works

• 
  Winter Scenery(1830)
• 
  Portrait ofJean Chrétien Baud(1835)
• 
  Portrait ofJohannes van den Bosch(1836)
• 
  Lion attacking a horse(1840)
• 
  Self-portrait (1841)
• 
  Deer Hunt(1846)
• 
  Javanese Landscape, with Tigers Listening to the Sound of a Travelling Group(1849)
• 
  Six Horsemen Chasing Deer(1860)
• 
  View ofDieng Plateau(1872)
• 
  A Flood in Java(1865-1875), modelled afterGéricault'sThe Raft of the Medusa
• 
  Javanese Mail Station(1876)
• 
  Watercolor study of a walking tiger
• 
  The Lion Hunt (1841)
• 
  A landscape in the Dutch East Indie / Indonesia

See also

• Habib Ali Kwitang

Further reading

• Karnadi, Koes (editor) 2006)Modern Indonesian art: from Raden Saleh to the present dayintroduction by Suwarno Wisetrotomo; with contributions by Agung Hujatnikajennong... [et al.] Denpasar: Koes Artbooks.ISBN979-8704-02-9
• Heuken, Adolf (1982).Historical Sites of Jakarta.Jakarta, Indonesia: Cipta Loka Caraka.
• Yayasan Untuk Indonesia (2005).Ensiklopedi Jakarta: culture & heritage, Volume 3.Jakarta, Indonesia: merintah Provinsi Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta, Dinas Kebudayaan dan Permuseuman, Indonesia.ISBN978-979-8682-52-0.

External links

• Media related toRaden Salehat Wikimedia Commons