A sawah landscape, Sumatra
Signed and dated 'Sonnega '54' (lower right), and annotated 'Voor Jan de Bas 1-1-1970 / R de Bas' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas, 50,5x60,5 cm
Provenance:
- Collection Pieter de Bas (1909-1979) Mr de Bas was head of the MULO school and acting head of the HBS school in Medan. Thence by descent to the present owner.
Exhibited:
- Hotel de Boer, Medan 1954, where acquired by the first owner.
The light I observed everywhere was of a special quality, fluorescent blue, shone from nowhere but radiated from every point, oddly with great depth and intensity. The light in an entirely different dimension came from nowhere and went nowhere shimmering with the glow of a bright blue jewel. The most important thing I discovered was of being omnipresent and able to understand everything at the same time, yes I could fathom creation completely.
Auke Sonnega, born March 9, 1910 in Leeuwarden, known as the painter, primarily of young Balinese men and women.
Originally raised in the reformed denomination, the parents of Auke apparently practised theosophy and their children, including Auke were taught these principles. The talent for drawing revealed itself at an early stage which in 1926 lead to a 4-year study of textile design at the Academy for Art and Craft in Amsterdam.
He completed the academy in 1930 and worked in a carpet factory in Twente until 1934 and then followed in his sister Aafje’s footsteps leaving the Netherlands to go to the Dutch East Indies where in 1935 he started working as a graphic designer with an advertising bureau in Batavia. He was able to travel through Java and Bali on the motorbike that he brought with him from Europe, and was paid for his travelogue, enhanced with his own photo’s which appeared in several Dutch newspapers and magazines.
In the 1930’s two Europeans, Walter Spies and Rudolf Bonnet...
Category
Mid-20th Century Expressionist Landscape Paintings
