L. Eland: The glorification of nature

L. Eland: The glorification of nature

By Lilia Syarif Naga

JAKARTA (JP): Sometimes we don't know how much we have
accomplished in the advancement of technology and civilization,
nor do we realize the great amount of deterioration we have
caused to our precious earth, our one and only home.

One of the ways to measure our advances and declines is to
look back and compare our past with our present. We could look at
lots of data in the history books, but a more subtle, intelligent
and romantic way to gain this knowledge is by contemplating old
paintings.

Leonardus Joseph Eland (1884-1952) is one of the many
Indonesian born Dutch painters who devoted their lives to adoring
and preserving Indonesia's natural beauty.

It is funny and ironic to admit that the Dutch colonial era in
Indonesia had uncanny and hidden advantages for Indonesian
culture and civilization.

Eland's paintings have been sold at Christies, Sothebys,
Glerum and other prestigious galleries. And now, from Nov. 12
through Dec. 5, Santi Gallery in Kemang, South Jakarta, is
presenting 60 of his paintings in an exhibition called Permata
Khatulistiwa (The Jewel of The Equator).

Most of the displayed works depict Indonesia's grandeur, from
places like West and North Sumatra, Batavia, Central Java
(Salatiga, his birth place), East Java (Banyuwangi) and Timor.

Eland painted the mountains, forests, rivers, lakes, beaches,
market places, and some other scenes of social life. Most of his
paintings were done in oils on canvas, though he infrequently
worked on paper and board. Eland, with his realistic style of
painting, was seemingly only devoted to and enchanted by nature,
and in his era this was quite a new trend.

Because all of his paintings were created in pure adoration
and admiration of nature, his works have the uncanny ability to
make observers drift away to an idyllic, bygone era of innocence
and naivete.

He may not have realized that, in his own way, he was
recording history, while today we are afraid that most of the
natural objects that he depicted are already demolished, vanished
or heavily polluted.

Eland was a self-made man, even though he got lots of good
advice from Carel Dake Jr., a well-known Dutch Indie artist. As a
zealous traveler, Eland visited many places, including the U.S.,
Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and he also captured scenery
from Switzerland, the Netherlands and Morocco in his works.

Lexicon Nederlandse Beeldende Kunstenaars 1750-1950 (Lexicon
of Dutch Visual Artists 1750-1950) and Lexicon of Foreign Artist
who Visualized Indonesia 1600-1950 are two books that acknowledge
Leo Eland as a skillful and self-taught painter.

Many museums proudly collect his works, among them the Tropen
Museum in Amsterdam and the Volkenkundig Museum Nusantara in
Delft, Germany. In 1931 his paintings were exhibited in the
Colonial Exhibition in the Louvre Museum, Paris.

In 1938, J. Koning, from The Hague, published Mooi Indie, Land
van Gewijde Rust (Beautiful Indonesia, a Tranquil and Vast Land),
which included 12 landscape paintings by Eland.

Paintings by Leo Eland possess the ability to calm people and
to carry them away to a mystical, primitive and natural place.
Eland, with his style of realism, can be grouped in a genre with
the other Dutch artists mentioned above, who painted Indonesia's
landscapes and cultural settings.

Willingly or not, Eland might be categorized in the Mooi Indie
era of painters, an era that some artists respect and some do
not. Some say these artists were only a bunch of tourists who
traveled here and there, and made paintings without further
exploring the depth, value and essence of the culture.

But there are others who say that the painters from the Mooi
Indie era had great skills, excellent techniques and an
independence to make their own works and to decide their choices.

It might be true that the Mooi Indie class had a tendency to
produce paintings depicting Indonesia as a beautiful, peaceful,
rich and green paradise, in a realistic and impressionistic
style. Even though we must remember Emil Rizek (1901-1988), who,
to the contrary, depicted Indonesia from a bleak perspective.

Nevertheless we must admit that the Mooi Indie painters made
contributions which enriched Indonesia in the realm of the arts,
and inspired many artists in the following generations.