Kavel 336:

Gustave Flasschoen (1868 – 1940)

‘Op de dijk bij Yerseke’, gesigneerd l.o., paneel.

Afm. 32 x 40,5 cm.

Richtprijs € 600 – 800

Kavel 340:

Gustave Flasschoen (1868 – 1940)

‘Op weg naar de markt’, gesigneerd r.o., doek.

Afm. 52 x 73,5 cm.

Richtprijs € 600 – 800

Het bericht Zeeuwse schilderijen – Veiling 6 december 2018 verscheen eerst op Zeeuws Veilinghuis.

Onze volgende halfjaarlijkse veiling van Indische en Indonesische schilderijen bevat weer bijzondere werken van Lee Man Fong. Het hier getoonde werk ‘Rue du Sacré-Coeur,’ is gemaakt in 1950. Man Fong verbleef toen (tussen 1946 en 1952) in Europa. 

Het is tentoongesteld bij ‘Kunst van onze tijd’ te Den Haag, eveneens in 1950. 

Cornelis Veth schreef in de ‘Haagsche Courant’, hierover:
‘Zeer fijn bekeken, en toch wel sterk met het oog van een vreemdeling, zijn stadsgevallen als de ‘Oude Schans te Amsterdam bij sneeuw’ en de ‘Rue du Sacré Coeur te Parijs’. 

Op de achterkant is met de hand ‘Foejita’ geschreven. We vermoeden dat Lee Man Fong de beroemde Japanse kunstenaar Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968) in Parijs heeft ontmoet en dat dit schilderij een relatie met Foujita heeft. Foujita, welke tot de kring van o.a. Picasso en Matisse behoorde, woonde en werkte toen namelijk in Parijs.

Het feit dat dit een vermoeden is en niet uit bestaande publicaties kan worden achterhaald, toont wel aan dat er nog veel over de Europese periode van Lee Man Fong onbekend is.
Om die reden hebben we dan ook een onderzoek gestart. We hebben al een flink archief opgebouwd en hebben uiteraard de reeds bestaande publicaties, maar er zijn dus zeker nog hiaten.

Met name tentoonstellingscatalogi en foto’s van tentoonstellingen zijn belangrijk om
een goed beeld te krijgen. Graag zouden we ook mensen spreken die
Lee Man Fong hier in Europa ontmoet hebben.

Heeft u informatie? Schroom niet om contact op te nemen met:

Het bericht Lee Man Fong – ‘Rue du Sacré-Coeur, Parijs’ verscheen eerst op Zeeuws Veilinghuis.

Het bericht Highlights kunst- en antiekveiling – 9 juni 2017 verscheen eerst op Zeeuws Veilinghuis.

Het bericht Highlights Indonesian auction – June 2017 verscheen eerst op Zeeuws Veilinghuis.

WILLEM GERARD HOFKER (1902-1981) ’The Doge’s Palace, or: Venice, seen from San Giorgio (Palazzo Ducale / Venetië, vanaf San Giorgio)’, signed and dated 1968 lower left, canvas. 60 x 80 cm

Auction 8th of June 2017

Literature: Carpenter, B., Willem Hofker, Schilder van/Painter of Bali, Pictures Publishers, Wijk en Aalburg, 1993, no. 1208, p. 213, as: Venice, from San Giorgio. 1971, oil.

‘…the […] views of Venice are particularly striking because of the way he manages to dissolve this city of marble into a diaphonous, intangible dream floating above the water.’ (Algemeen Handelsblad, April 5, 1962, at an Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam exhibition, honouring Hofker’s 60th birthday)

Born in the city of The Hague in 1902, Willem Gerard Hofker applied for the local Academy of Fine Arts at the age of 15. Shortly after that, he moved to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam. He won second prize at the Prix de Rome in 1924, and became a well-known artist in the Netherlands during the 1930s. Hofker is mostly known for the body of work he made in Bali, where he and his wife Maria lived from 1938 until 1943. Hofker felt a deep emotional connection with his Balinese oeuvre, making it hard for him to sell any of it. Being childless, he even considered the drawn and painted portraits of the Balinese models his children. Having gone through the horror of war and Japanese camps, Willem and Maria Hofker returned to the Netherlands in 1946. The official portraits he made of queens Wilhelmina and Juliana helped to quickly regain his reputation as a portraittist. Although Hofker had a remarkable talent to capture the character of the sitter, it was merely a way to earn a living. He was not very sociable, and often ‘hid’ behind his easle. The models he really loved were tireless and patient; Nature and Architecture, both in the Netherlands and abroad.

In 1951, Rudolf Bonnet invited Willem and Maria to come with him to Italy. Bonnet had lived in the Italian village of Anticoli Corrado during the 1920s, before W.O.J. Nieuwenkamp (1874-1950) encouraged him to visit the Dutch East Indies. Eventually, when Hofker arrived in Bali in 1938, he met Bonnet, and they became close friends. ‘It was Rudolf who opened the mesmerizing doors of Bali for us, and helped us appreciate its beauty, both visible and elusive. In 1951, he also took us to Italy and shared the admiration with us, that he had for Italian nature and Italian art.’ (1) In the end, Maria and Willem would develop a great passion for Italy. In the 20 years that followed, the couple would make city trips to Rome, Assisi, Arezzo and Venice. Especially the latter deeply impressed Willem Hofker; more than half of his entire Italian oeuvre depicts Venice. Willem and Maria visit the ancient city in the northern Italian laguna many times between 1951 and 1970. In 1956, 1959, and 1961, Willem stays in Venice over a longer period of time, and makes numerous sketches and conté crayon drawings. The (rare) oil paintings were sometimes made on the spot, but were mostly done in his Amsterdam studio, based on sketches he had done during his trip. This also goes for the current lot, which is possibly based on a 1961 drawing (2). It was made from the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, which is well known for its breath-taking view of the ancient Venetian skyline. Hofker was sitting on a small square in front of the 16th-century San Giorgio Maggiore basilica church overlooking the Canal Grande. In the distance, the Campanile di San Marco, the Bell Tower of the St. Mark’s basilica, rises above all other monumental buildings; we catch a glimpse of St. Marks square (Piazza San Marco), with its two granite columns, showing Venice’s patron saints, St. Theodore and the winged Lion of Venice. The Palazzo Ducale, originating from 1340, built in Venetian Gothic style and the residence of the Doge of Venice, takes center stage. In the foreground, some sailing boats and one of the famous gondolas can be seen, among the hustle and bustle of tourists: ‘I savour the most beautiful dresses in passing. The lovely buildings are adorned with them and they pose whenever and for as long as I want!’ (Willem Hofker, August 1959, Venice) (3)

Whether it was done purposely or not, this painting might well be an interpretation of the early impressionists’ Venetian paintings, like the famous series of cityscapes by Claude Monet (1840-1926) that he made in 1908. The 1881 painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) is even identical in viewpoint, and also Adrien Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès (1880-1958) painted Venice from San Giorgio in 1919-1921. Hofker’s style is less impressionist, more documentary than the mentioned painters, but with a similar sense of imagination and interpretation. As I described in the epilogue of the book on Hofker, his primary focus was on portraying beauty, be it a girl from the Dutch province of Zeeland or from Bali, be it a Venetian palace or a Balinese temple. Hofker was a very associative person, sensitive to atmosphere, often comparing themes of beauty, and in awe of their parallels. ‘… I would not want to miss this silent hour in the life of the city, as the sun rises; the fresh coolness is reminiscent of the start of the day in the East Indies and a cup of coffee made by my hostess the evening before underlines the similarity…’ (Willem Hofker, August 1959, Venice) (4) The composition of the current lot, Palazzo Ducale, is even comparable to a 1938 Balinese drawing and painting by Hofker of the Pura Dalem near Batubulan (5). The compository element of a holy waringin tree on the right is comparable to the architectural element we see in the current painting. This element seems to be the edge pedestal of the 16th-century San Giorgio Maggiore basilica church, but in fact it is not. Whereas the Palazzo Ducale is painted in a perfectly truthful manner, the pedestal in the foreground is merely repoussoir; an occlusive element, made up by the artist to create a layered perspective. The pedestal and the foliage are even painted in blurry brush strokes, enhancing the sense of photographic depth of field.

Willem Hofker uses classic impressionist elements: a low horizon, suggesting the painting to be made en plein air, and the dramatic clouds competing with the medieval architecture that only takes up a modest part of the canvas; yet, interestingly, the style of this painting is quite romantic, and the composition quite narrative. This mixture of romanticism and impressionism creates a fascinating paradox. Be as it may, Architecture, Nature and Man, these three rudimentary themes that Hofker was so fond of, amalgamate in wonderful harmony in this magnum opus within Hofker’s Italian oeuvre.

References:
(1) Maria Hofker-Rueter, in de Roever-Bonnet: Rudolf Bonnet, een Zondagskind, 1993, p. 5,
(2) Christie’s Amsterdam, September 3, 2002, lot 206
(3) Hofker/Orsini, Willem Gerard Hofker, 2013, p. 40
(4) ibid., p. 218,
(5) ibid., p. 138-139 and 141

Gianni Orsini, May 2017

Het bericht WILLEM GERARD HOFKER (1902-1981) – VENICE verscheen eerst op Zeeuws Veilinghuis.

Het bericht WILLEM GERARD HOFKER (1902-1981) ’Ni Rinit’, Bali juli 1941 verscheen eerst op Zeeuws Veilinghuis.

RUDOLF BONNET (1895-1978) ’Ardjuna Bertapa’, signed, titled and dated ‘Bali 1953’ upper left, crayon and pastels on pigmented paper. 67 x 49 cm. € 50.000-70.000

Auction 8th of June 2017

‘Art is the permanent and sublime expression of the creative power inherent in a nation’s character.’ (Rudolf Bonnet, on the development of Balinese art forms. In: De Roever-Bonnet, H., Rudolf Bonnet, een Zondagskind, 1993, p. 22)

The complex background to this magnificent drawing by Rudolf Bonnet can be best summarized by his friends, Beryl de Zoete and Walter Spies:
‘A favourite theme of the drama which generally follows the old style of Djanger is the ascesis of Arjuna, the most famous of the five Pandava brothers, whose adventures form the main theme of the Mahabharata. […] …we have some one wrapped in meditation on a mountain at the very moment when his help is needed to destroy a ravaging demon. In this case the demonking Nivatakavaca had received from Shiva the boon that he should be invincible by gods, demi-gods, demons, and rishis. In their dilemma, the gods turn to the mortal Arjuna. Indra sends a bevy of divine courtesans to beguile him, with Suprabha and Tilottama at the head. They are rejoiced at the failure of the nymphs, and submit him to various other tests, all of which he passes successfully, and is recognized by the gods as their appointed saviour.’ (Arjuna Vivaha, from: Beryl de Zoete & Walter Spies, Dance & Drama in Bali, 1938, p. 282)

The title of the current lot, Arjuna Bertapa, literally Arjuna the Ascetic, is written in Bahasa Indonesia by Bonnet. This is remarkable, as the original text is part of an old Javanese writing, Arjuna Wiwaha, in which he is referred to as Arjuna matapa, or simply Arjuna tapa (stemming from the Sanskrite word tapas, meaning ascetic). Be as it may, Rudolf Bonnet was well aware of the backgrounds of his subjects. After his formal education at the Amsterdam Royal Academy of Fine Arts, he lived and worked in the Italian village of Anticoli Corrado during the 1920s. He also traveled through northern Africa, before embarking on a journey to the Dutch East Indies. Bonnet visited Java, Bali, and Nias in 1929-1930, and finally found his second home in Bali, in 1931, after being mesmerized by Balinese dance performances. Bonnet developed an intense connection with Balinese culture and art forms. He formed Pita Maha in the mid 1930s, together with I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, Walter Spies and Cokorde Gde Agung Sukawati, preserving, developing, and at the same time maintaining a high artistic level of the arts and crafts of Bali. He initiated and designed Puri Lukisan, and was highly respected by President Sukarno.

The dancer enacting Arjuna is adorned with an elaborately decorated headdress, necklace, and arm bracelets, all of which are made from buffalo hide, in a similar way that wayang kulit puppets are made. The leather is perforated in beautifully geometric patterns, gilded and decorated with small pieces of mirrored glass to give a suggestion of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and other precious stones. In the dancer’s neck, a stylized Garuda is attached to the headdress. Garuda Mungkur, the mythical bird Garuda pointing backwards, protects him from evil spirits. Arjuna’s hands are in a hand position (mudra) called muspa. Although the drawing does not depict a flower in the dancer’s hands, a few other cambodja flowers are tucked in the top part of the headdress, that must have been held in his hands shortly before as part of the meditation ceremony. The incense, burning softly in the lower left corner, completes the drawn suggestion of this ceremony. The keris that is tucked into the dancer’s breast garment is worn high, rising above the owner’s shoulder. This is adat for Balinese men, whereas Javanese men wear their keris around the waist. The keris itself is a remarkable combination of known shapes, both wrangka (boat) and ukiran (handle). The wrangka is and old type of Patun Poh (the modest kidney-shaped gayaman boat) and Serengatan (the extraverted type of ladrang boat). The handle seems to be an archetypical Bebondollan shape, but it also holds elements of a veiled Durga handle, representing the evil witch Durga, veiling her forbidding face. Bonnet might as well have used some fantasy here, in order to create an aesthetic balance. This idea is confirmed by the way the actor wears his hair: usually, Arjuna the Ascetic wears his hair long.

Rudolf Bonnet captures the character of Arjuna during his moments of deep meditation. Admiring the beauty of the Balinese people, he typically draws the male actor in side view, catching his attractive face en profile. Bonnet mastered the skills of making a side view into a suggestion of perspective, using three-dimensional elements like the incense bowl, the keris, the subtle lines suggesting the right arm, and hatching the space behind the actor’s face in darker tones, thus creating depth and suggesting the surroundings of the cave to which Arjuna retreated. The spattering that Bonnet started using in the early 1940s also adds a sense of rich atmospheric depth to the drawing.

Rudolf Bonnet visualized Balinese actors and dancers many times throughout his life. From the early 1930s until his passing in 1978, Bonnet drew and painted Arja, Keris, Gambuh, Joged and even Legong dancers. With his background as a fresco painter, he was imbued with a sense of drama, and was always searching for the perfect moment of quietude to catch in his art. The current lot is a fine example, containing all the elements of beauty and composition that Bonnet cherished.

Gianni Orsini, May 2017

More information about our Indonesian auctions (Indische veilingen):

Het bericht RUDOLF BONNET (1895-1978) ’Ardjuna Bertapa’ verscheen eerst op Zeeuws Veilinghuis.

WILLEM GERARD HOFKER (1902-1981)
’Ni Soeplug bij de huistempel, Oeboed Bali’, signed and dated March 1941 lower left,
conté pencil and crayon on paper, 48 x 29 cm.

Auction 8th of June 2017

During the summer of 1920, Willem Gerard Hofker (1902-1981), accompanied by fellow students of fine art, traveled to Paris. Along with his friends and classmates Mari Andriessen (1897-1979) and Frits van Hall (1899-1945), both sculptors, he developed a great admiration for the classical sculptures. The friends visited the newly opened ‘Hotel Biron’, currently known as the Musée Rodin, several times. Willem wrote about these visits in detail in letters to his parents. The works of ‘the master of sculptors’, August Rodin, and the enormous collection of ancient sculptures and artefacts from Greece, Rome and Egypt in particular ‘made an ever-lasting impression’. He wrote ‘…, so much The Louvre can be jealous of! ‘.

After Paris, the party traveled on to Chartres where Hofker stayed for 10 days to study the main Cathedral. In more enthusiastic letters he made interesting remarks about the differences in sculptures. ‘In the Cathedral of Reims’, which he had visited before, he continued, (…) ‘the sculptures are placed in niches to separate them from the architecture’. ‘ (..) by itself they are nicer than here in Chartres, where they are purely narrative (..) the size of the figures, and their setting express the significance of it’. ‘But in Chartres they form an integral part of the architecture, with their beautiful modest forms but powerful expressions, everything is good and there are no disturbing elements present’.

If we translate Hofker’s remarks from Paris 1920 to this presented drawing of the charming beauty “Ni Soeplug, at the house temple” from Bali 1941, we can see that Hofker made a combination of the two. He displays the girl on a raised level in front of the doorway, as a niche. She is wrapped in a light, single pleated dress that detaches her from the red wall against which she is leaning. Like a ‘Dvarapala statue’, the Balinese gatekeeper, she stands guard while humbly gazing down, awaiting a visitor who might pass. Hofker portrays her features in thin but striking lines beginning at her left hand, equal in colour and tone to the building. The details of the golden jewellery and the rosette on her temple are vague, but unmistakably visible. More prominent is the elegant hibiscus flower that is positioned against her raven black hair. The sarong which covers her body is without elaborate patterns or striking colours but formed in a few outlines with added smudge in a fade technique. Ni Soeplug is part of this divine environment, where nothing disturbs the serenity.

On the reverse side, we discovered a preliminary study that reveals the excellent drawing technique of Hofker. What can be seen in the sketched lines is the face of a young boy playing the flute. Although nothing is noted about his identity the image undoubtedly represents Diederik Walraven (1930-2015), cousin of the sculptor Frits van Hall. In 1938, Willem and Maria Hofker regularly stayed with the Walraven family in Bandung (East Indies). Later on, throughout the fifties in Amsterdam, Diederik visited the violin playing artist Hofker in his studio to play music together on a weekly basis. In that same period, his sister Carla had become one of Hofker’s main Dutch nudes. Diederik grew up to become a gifted flute player and composer of music on which the sounds of his native city Bandung had a prominent influence and gave it a distinct sonority.

Seline Hofker, May 2017

More information about our Indonesian auctions (Indische veilingen):

info@zeeuwsveilinghuis.nl
www.zeeuwsveilinghuis.nl

Het bericht WILLEM GERARD HOFKER (1902-1981) ’Ni Soeplug bij de huistempel, Oeboed Bali’ verscheen eerst op Zeeuws Veilinghuis.

LEE MAN FONG (1913-1988)
’Flute player on a buffalo and his friend’,
signed and dated 1952 upper left in traditional Chinese, board. 99 x 45 cm.

Provenance: acquired directly from the artist in the Netherlands.
€ 80.000-120.000
Auction 8th of June 2017

Mounting the Ox, slowly
I return homeward.
The voice of my flute intones
through the evening.
Measuring with hand-beats
the pulsating harmony,
I direct the endless rhythm.
Whoever hears this melody
will join me.

(Riding the Bull Home, 6th poem from the Ten Ox-herding Pictures)

Born in 1913 in Guangzhou, China, Lee Man Fong was one of 10 children. At a young age, the family moved to Singapore, where Man Fong would eventually make ads and artwork to earn a living. In 1932, he moved to Jakarta, where he was inspired by both the ‘Nederlandsch-Indische Kunstkringen’ and the counter movement Persagi. In 1942, he was emprisoned because of his opposition to Japanese colonialism in Indonesia.

Following World War II, Lee Man Fong was introduced to Western painting in the Netherlands, and was inspired to mix Eastern and Westerm art forms, creating a unique artistic body of work. In 1945, he visited Bali, and was inspired to paint a series of Balinese oils in a Western impressionistic style, applying grey, brown and green hues in a rich impasto way, creating a non-romanticized view of his subjects. In the course of his career, he went back to his Chinese roots, painting in a much more calligraphic way. His record-breaking panoramic paintings depicting (a quite idyllic) Bali, typically coined ‘Bali Life’, are executed in a similar way. This style of painting has become Man Fong’s trademark.

The motif of a youth herding a water buffalo alludes to a famous Chinese twelfth-century cycle of parables known as the Ten Ox-herding Pictures, a series of short poems and accompanying images. In this cycle, actions such as looking for an ox and herding it represent some of the steps in the quest for enlightenment. The ten poems include searching the bull, discovering his footprints, perceiving, catching and taming the bull, riding the animal home, transcendence of bull and Self, reaching the source and returning to society. The ox-herding pictures had an immediate and extensive influence on the Chinese practice of Chan Buddhism. Lee Man Fong was well aware of this cycle of parables. The 6th poem, Riding the Bull Home, was one of his favorites to translate into paintings. We see the youth, accompanied by a friend, herding the bull who willingly carries the boy while listening to the sounds of his flute. In this part of Man Fong’s oeuvre, he celebrates the adagium of Less Is More; the transparent background of distant mountains and a steep rocky cliff, overgrown with wild vegetation, is very suggestive, only painted with a few fluent brushstrokes, all in natural tones of brown, green and blue. The bull seems to wonder which direction to go, but is encouraged by the boy and his musical guidance. Although his anatomy suggests a ferociously large animal, the lightness with which Man Fong paints the bull creates a light-legged and friendly character.

When Lee Man Fong lived in Jakarta, he was so respected as an artist that he was asked by President Sukarno to become his personal art advisor and editor of a 5-volume edition of Sukarno’s vast art collection, in 1964. In the introduction of these books, Man Fong summarized his vision on art as follows:

‘Painting is the flower of culture forming an expression without words, but with strokes that can communicate with anyone everywhere, without the limits of time, nationality and language.’
(Lee Man Fong, in: Lukisan Lukisan dan Patung Patung Kolleksi Presiden Sukarno dari Republik Indonesia, part I, Foreword, p. 18)

Gianni Orsini, May 2017

More information about our Indonesian auctions (Indische veilingen):

info@zeeuwsveilinghuis.nl
www.zeeuwsveilinghuis.nl

Het bericht LEE MAN FONG (1913-1988) ’Flute player on a buffalo and his friend’ verscheen eerst op Zeeuws Veilinghuis.

AFFANDI (1907-1990)
’Portrait of Drew Pearson and Joe Borkin’, signed and dated 1967 lower left, canvas. 132 x 103 cm.
Borkin (left) was an advisor of President Sukarno, Pearson an important journalist.

With this painting comes a box with photographs, Time Magazine (December 13, 1948)
and the book ‘The crime and punishment of I.G. Farben’ by Joseph Borkin.
€ 20.000-30.000

Auction 8th of June 2017

Affandi is the number one of Indonesia’s world-famous painters. He has painted in numerous countries, ranging from Asia, Europe, as well as North and South America. He joined the Venice, Sao Paulo and Sydney Biennale and received several international awards. In 1965 he established the first private museum in Indonesia, Museum Affandi in Yogyakarta.

Joseph Borkin was an American economist, legal scolar and corruption fighter for the American Ministry of Justice. He is the writer of Crime and Punishment of IG Farben. Drew Pearson was a journalist and friend of Borkin.

Borkin got to know President Soekarno in the early fifties of the 20th century in his capacity of advisor to the president. Willem Oltmans, the Dutch journalist, also used to accompany them. President Soekarno liked to surround himself by artists and that’s how Borkin met with Affandi. As an art collector he immediately was so impressed by Affandi that he called him the world’s next Van Gogh.

Their friendship lasted long. During Affandi’s visits to the USA from the sixties onwards, Borkin supported Affandi many times. In 1962 Affandi was commissioned by Joseph Borkin to paint scenes in America. Affandi also made several portraits of Joseph Borkin, depicting him as an inquisitively and upright man. Borkin introduced Affandi to various politicians, amongst whom the American Minister of Justice Robert Kennedy and his wife. Later on the couple visited the Affandi’s in Yogyakarta.

In 1967 Affandi was invited by the East West Center, at the University of Manoa, Hawai, together with Maryati, his wife, Kartika Affandi, his daughter, and Saptohoedoyo, where they painted a monumental mural, Wisdom of the East. After finishing this work the family again was invited to Washington by Borkin , where Affandi visited several locations and Kartika studied museum management at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Kartika has a vivid memory of their meetings with Joseph Borkin and is very grateful for his support.

Barney Agerbeek, May 2017

Barney Agerbeek is currently preparing the biography of Kartika Affandi, which will be brought out by LM Publishers in Asia, Europe and the United States in December 2017.

Het bericht AFFANDI (1907-1990) ’Portrait of Drew Pearson and Joe Borkin’ verscheen eerst op Zeeuws Veilinghuis.