Le Mayeur's painting to be sold in Sydney

Le Mayeur's painting to be sold in Sydney

Tim Goodman, Contributor, Sydney

Le Mayeur found two sources of inspiration as an artist: the
Balinese landscape and Ni, a graceful dancer who became his wife

Adrien Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres, one of the most highly
regarded painters of the Southeast Asia region of the 20th
century, is sometimes referred to as 'Indonesia's Gauguin'.
Although Le Mayeur initially followed in Gauguin's footsteps when
he traveled to Tahiti in the 1920s, his own artistic style came
to the fore after he settled in Bali in the early 1930s.

Le Mayeur was one of many artists, including the Philippine-
born Spanish painter, Antonio Blanco (1927-1999), and the
Australian artist, Donald Friend (1915-1989), to find inspiration
in this idyllic Indonesian Island.

Bonhams & Goodman, based in Sydney, has established a strong
record for selling paintings from this region. In 2004, Le
Mayeur's 1940s oil painting, The Garden at Sanur, achieved a
regional auction record at A$870,500, while Donald Friend's The
Toy Canoe made a world auction record at A$59,625. Both went to
Indonesian buyers. Another superb oil painting by Le Mayeur,
Women Weaving, will be offered in the Sydney sale of Fine
Australian and International Art on April 26.

Le Mayeur was born into an aristocratic Belgian family. His
father, although a talented marine artist, was opposed to his son
following in his footsteps.

However, Le Mayeur rejected his father's entreaties to pursue
an academic career, leaving Belgium in his late teens to follow
his twin passions of travel and art. He traveled extensively
through Europe, America, Africa, India and Asia, before settling
in Bali in 1932. Here Le Mayeur found two sources of inspiration
that were integral to his development as an artist: the Balinese
landscape and his muse and model, Ni Wayan Pollok Tjoeglik (1917-
1985), a graceful dancer who became his wife.

After their marriage, the couple settled into a beautiful
house near the beach on the south coast of the island, an idyllic
location that is depicted in The Garden at Sanur. Here, Ni, who
is featured in many of his works, was the model for all seven
figures in the painting, and her likeness can clearly be seen in
the three foreground figures posing elegantly under a canopy of
bougainvillea. In this work, Le Mayeur deftly evokes the gentle
play of light and color through lush foliage and even provides a
glimpse of the beach in the background.

Ni, and the house they built together, provided her artist
husband with a source of endless inspiration. In a letter written
in 1946, La Mayeur wrote that "...our little house makes up a
worthy frame around her beauty". Although happily settled in
Bali, he still mounted numerous exhibitions in Singapore, with Ni
sometimes dancing at the openings.

As Le Mayeur's reputation grew, many famous people visited his
Sanur retreat, including Eleanor Roosevelt, novelist Nevil Shute,
and President Soekarno. Despite increasing demand for his work,
Le Mayeur continued to sell his paintings from his home and often
only to people he befriended.

Women Weaving was bought directly from Le Mayeur in the late
1940s by an American, who became friendly with the artist during
his regular visits to Bali while fleeing a failed marriage. The
picture is in remarkable condition, as it has been kept for 50
years in the US home of the original owner, where the climate is
more sympathetic to artworks than the tropical weather.

Women Weaving is mounted in a beautifully carved Balinese
frame, which is characteristic of Le Mayeur's work from this
period. The setting is, once again, Le Mayeur's garden, and the
weavers, doubtless inspired by the graceful figure of the
artist's wife, are weaving colorful cloth on traditional looms
under a canopy of arched boughs. Interestingly, in a photograph
reproduced in Jop Ubbens and Cathinka Huizing's Adrien Jean Le
Mayeur de Merpres: Painter-Traveler, the definitive book about
the artist, Le Mayeur is pictured working on a charcoal sketch on
canvas that bears an uncanny resemblance to the subject picture.

Whatever the case, Women Weaving aptly evokes the idyllic
setting that provided Le Mayeur with a source of inspiration for
almost 30 years.

Tim Goodman is Chief Executive Officer of Bonhams & Goodman,
Sydney.