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Strokes of Genius
Raden Saleh and the meaning of Luxury
by Amir Sidharta
Amir Sidharta is the Curator/Director of the Museum Universitas Pelita
Harapan and a lecturer of architecture at Universitas Pelita Harapan.
In 2005 he established Sidharta Auctioneer. His writings and photographs
have appeared in a number of newspapers and magazines in Indonesia,
as well as in literary magazines and professional journals. He recently
completed two books, 25 Tropical Houses in Indonesia and S. Sudjojono:
Visible Soul.
Photos by Yori Antar
The question "what does luxury mean to you?" completely baffled me. I never really thought of it and I am personally not very interested in luxury or what people usually consider luxurious.
In any case, it certain got me thinking about what luxury does mean to me. Coincidentally, as I was driving down to Florida it got late and I became too sleepy to continue on driving. So, I had to find a place to spend the night in this sleepy town called Selma (is this the town Selma Hayek adopted?), and ended up in what appeared to be the most decent motel there. As I was thinking what a dump the place was, I realized that it was called Luxury Inn. Certainly, pretence alone can never turn make-believe into reality.
I came to wonder, have I actually experienced life in luxury? Considering the tremendous efforts we make to make us appear glamorous, I am sure that glamour is not synonymous with luxury.
A recent visit to Thomas Jefferson's private residence in Virginia provided insight to a life in luxury from my personal view point. Monticello was modest and practical, sophisticated, aesthetically pleasing and elegant yet comfortable and comforting.
Looking at Jefferson's life in Virginia of the late 18th and early 19th centuries brought to mind the life of an interesting Indonesian who lived in the 19th century. Raden Saleh was born into a Javanese family of Arabic descent in 1811 (according to the most recent findings). He is considered as the first Indonesian modern artist. Belgian artist A.J. Payen recognized the talent of the young artist talent and managed to persuade the Netherlands Indies colonial government to send him to the Netherlands to study art.
Arriving in Europe in 1829, Raden Saleh started to study under Cornelius Kruseman and Andries Schelfhout. From Kruseman he studied the art of portraiture, a skill he mastered and which opened doors into many European courts where he was commissioned to paint portraits.
He became exposed to the paintings of the French Romantic master Eugene
Delacroix, and produced his own works depicting Romanticist themes of
ships braving vicious ocean waves, fighting animals and hunting scenes.
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