Six Horsemen Chasing Deer (1860) by Raden Saleh (Courtesy of National Gallery Singapore)

Two landscape paintings by great Indonesian artist Raden Saleh appeared in public for the first time ever at an exhibition, which opens on Thursday at the National Gallery Singapore.

Titled “Between Worlds: Raden Saleh and Juan Luna,” the new exhibition at the National Gallery Singapore showcases masterpieces by the Indonesian and Filipino masters,
exploring each of the artists’ works over their illustrious careers across different time periods.

Despite coming from different countries and being active at
different times in the 19th century, the two shared a similar journey as Southeast Asian artists who sailed across the ocean to hone their craft in Europe, earned their place within European art worlds and achieved successes in their home countries.

“Raden Saleh and Juan Luna are two of the earliest and most significant artists, who propelled the prestige of Southeast Asian art around the world in the 19th century,” said the
gallery’s director Eugene Tan.

Raden Saleh, who received the title of King’s Painter by King Willem III of the Netherlands, was the first Indonesian artist to receive training in Europe. He refined his skills in the Netherlands before going on to receive acclaim in Germany and Paris for his signature Orientalist animal hunts and fights.

It was in Paris that Raden Saleh painted his monumental works like Deer Hunt on the Island of Java (1847) and Boschbrand (Forest Fires, 1849), which entered the collections of the French and Dutch kings, respectively.

Luna, taken under the wing of Spanish painter Alejo Vera, studied in Madrid and Rome. His painting, Spoliarium, earned him fame in Spain and won him the first-class medal in Spain’s annual art exhibition in Madrid in 1884. He later moved to Paris, taking part in the salons while
exhibiting and accepting his commissions in Spain.

“Raden Saleh and Juan Luna made an impact in the seats of colonial power in the 19th century with their success in the Netherlands, Germany, France and Spain, proving that Asian artists were at least the equals of their European counterparts,” Tan said.

The exhibition, which opened on Nov. 16 and runs until March 11 next year, is part of Century of Light, a special presentation of two exhibitions focusing on the art of the 19th century.

The gallery’s curatorial & collections deputy director Russell Storer said the “Between Worlds” exhibition was the culmination of four years of effort by the gallery’s curators — Clarissa Chikiamco, Syed Muhammad Hafiz and himself, to bring together the two masters’ paintings, drawings and archive materials from Southeast Asian, European and American museums and private collections, for the very first time.

“With their support, we have been able to shape a rich and expansive exhibition that will enable people to learn about the remarkable lives and careers of Raden Saleh and Juan Luna, and to appreciate the impact they made in the art worlds in Europe as well as in Southeast Asia,” he says.

Fifty-seven works by Raden Saleh in the exhibition include two landscape paintings of Java from the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

One of them, Six Horsemen Chasing Deer (1860) showcases two high-ranking Javanese men and four retainers on horseback, chasing a stag and a deer on the plains south of Bandung, where Raden Saleh lived as a young man and was familiar with the sport as he himself was an accomplished horseman.

The other work, entitled Javanese Temple in Ruins (1860), depicts the 9th century Buddhist temple located around three kilometers east of Borobudur temple. Raden Saleh had
visited both temples when visiting his relative.

The two works were part of four landscape views of Java commissioned by Scottish businessman Alexander Fraser in the late 1850s. Fraser took the paintings back with him when he moved to London in 1879. The paintings were eventually donated by his wife’s niece Sally Burbank Swart to the Smithsonian. They are the only known Raden Saleh paintings in a public collection in the United States.

Curator Hafiz said the current show was the first time Raden Saleh’s works from both Europe and Southeast Asia had appeared together. Previous shows, such as in Indonesia and then Germany, only exhibited works from Indonesia and Europe, respectively.

The two works from the Smithsonian, he said, had never been displayed, ever, since they were stored in its warehouse facilities. “Maybe because they’re not relevant for the American museum because Raden Saleh did not go to America,” Hafiz said.

“When they heard we were doing the show, they said great. Before the works could travel, they had to conserve them, change the frame and to stabilize them. So a lot of money and logistical arrangements [were
involved],” he said, adding that after the show, the two paintings would be on long-term loan to the gallery.

He said the main challenge was to bring in all the collections for the show.

A painting in the Louvre collection, which has been on long-term loan to a town hall a three-hour ride outside Paris since 1912, could not be taken to Singapore due to its fragile condition.

Another of Raden Saleh’s masterpieces, Gevangenneming van Diponegoro, also known as The Arrest of Prince Diponegoro (1857), is also not part of the show since it is in the Indonesian presidential collection.

“We tried our best but it was not possible, maybe because they’re not ready to let the work out of Jakarta,” Hafiz said.

“But in any case, it may even be good for the show because, I mean, when you talk about Raden Saleh, the only painting that appears in people’s heads is The Arrest of Diponegoro, and they forget about the rest of his works. So we saw this [show] as a way to expand the stories.”

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