Saleh Syarif Bustaman | |
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 Raden Saleh inc. 1872 | |
| Born | Saleh Sjarif Boestaman c. 1811 |
| Died | 23 April 1880(1880-04-23) (aged 68–69) Buitenzorg, Dutch East Indies |
| Known for | Painting, drawing |
| Notable work |
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| Movement | Romanticism |
RadenSaleh Sjarif Boestaman (Javanese:ꦫꦢꦺꦤ꧀ꦱꦭꦺꦃꦯ꦳ꦫꦶꦥ꦳꧀ꦨꦸꦱ꧀ꦠꦩꦤ꧀,EYD:Raden Saleh Syarif Bustaman;Arabic:رادين صالح شريف بوستامن,DIN:Rādīn Ṣāliḥ Šarīf Būstāman;c. 1811 – 23 April 1880)[1][2][3] was a pioneeringRomantic painter from theDutch East Indies ofArab-Javanese ethnicity. 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.
Raden Saleh Syarif Bustaman was born in 1811 in the village of Terboyo, nearSemarang on the island ofJava in theDutch East Indies (present-dayIndonesia). He was born into a nobleHadhrami family; his father wasSayyid Husen bin Alwi bin Awal bin Yahya, whose family had come to Java via Surat in India in the seventeenth century. He was the grandson ofSayyid Abdullah Bustam through his mother, Raden Ayu Sarif Husen bin Alwi bin Awal.[4][5] Through his sister, Roqayah, Raden Saleh was uncle by marriage to the famous religious leaderHabib Ali Kwitang.
Young Raden Saleh was first taught inBogor by 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 underCornelis Kruseman andAndreas 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.[6]
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 theRijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Several of his paintings were destroyed when the Colonial Dutch pavilionin Paris was burnt in 1931.
Raden Saleh returned to Dutch East Indies in 1852,[7]: 26 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 Javanesepriyayi or thePeranakan Chinese '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.[7]: 31
Upon returning, he married a wealthyIndo heiress of part-German extraction, Constancia von Mansfeld.[8] His new wife financed the construction of Saleh'slandhuis or country house on the private domain (particuliere land) that the couple had acquired,Cikini.[8] Saleh's house was inspired architecturally byCallenberg Castle where 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 Marzuki was built in the former gardens. The house itself is still used today as aPGI Cikini Hospital and its name is immortalized in a street near the hospital.[7]: 26
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 Gardens with 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.[7]: 30 She died on 31 July 1880,[7]: 30 following her husband's death three months earlier.
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."[7]: 30
While living in Paris, Saleh metHorace Vernet whose 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."[7]: 23
Many European nobles were amazed by Raden Saleh's paintings, as were the Dutch, they did not expect a young painter from theDutch East Indies (now Indonesia) to be able to master the techniques and capture the character of western painting,[9] includingSachsen-Coburg-Gotha, the family ofQueen Victoria, and a number of governors-general such asJohannes van den Bosch,Jean Chrétien Baud, andHerman Willem Daendels.[10] In 1883, an exhibition of Raden Saleh's paintings was held in Amsterdam to commemorate the third anniversary of Saleh's death, on the initiative ofKing Willem III and Ernst of Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha.[11]Among them were the paintings Burning Forest, Buffalo Hunting in Java, and the Capture ofPrince Diponegoro.
Raden Saleh is particularly remembered for his historical painting,The Arrest of Pangeran Diponegoro,[7]: 26 which depicted the betrayal of the rebel leaderPrince Diponegoro by the colonial government, thus ending theJava War in 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.[7]: 26
Raden Saleh’s work has been regarded as a sign of incipient nationalism in what was then the Dutch East Indies / Indonesia.[12] 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 wearingbatik andblangkon.
Saleh finished this painting in 1857 and presented it toWillem III of Netherlands inThe 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 Palace Museum inJakarta.[7]: 26
Decades later, somewhere inBogor, Mas Adung, a descendant of the Sundanese nobleman Raden Panoeripan, was about to clear the weeds to the west of his house. Unexpectedly, after the weeds were cleared, two large tombstones were revealed with Dutch letters written on them. The tombstones were made of marble. The two tombstones were none other than the tombs of Raden Saleh and his wife. This incident occurred in 1923.[13]
In 1953, PresidentSukarno visited Raden Saleh's tomb. Bung Karno once told Adun that "Raden Saleh was a great Indonesian painter who was widely known in Europe" and assigned the architectFriedrich Silaban to restore his tomb.[14] Behind Raden Saleh's tomb actually lies the tomb of Raden Panoeripan and several of his descendants. It is said that Raden Panoeripan's tomb has been around since the 17th century. Raden Saleh's tomb is currently cared for and guarded by a caretaker who is a direct descendant of Raden Panoeripan.
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Media related toRaden Saleh at Wikimedia Commons
