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.