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Lot Essay
Le Mayeur: The Luminist Pur Sang
Temple Dancers (Lot 31) is a superb example of the impressionist way the Belgian painter Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès used to paint before World War II.
Le Mayeur arrived on the isle of Bali in 1932 and decided to stay forever in this sun-kissed corner of the world. Before that moment his search for inspiration brought him all over the world. During his travels to North Africa, India, Madagascar and Tahiti lasting at least a decade, he realised that what he was searching for was light, colour and beauty. Finally on Bali he found what he sought for. What inspired him most of all was his muse, the famous Legong dancer Ni Pollok (1917-1985), who was 37 years his younger and who became his wife. At that time, Balinese women must have seemed very exotic and elegant to the painter's European eyes. Among collectors from all over the world, next to his portraits of Pollok the painter is very well known for are his scenes of Bali life. Besides the settings in and around his own house and garden in Sanur, he painted women on the beach, women bathing in a river or women carrying fruits to the market and festivals.
The painting we are discussing here is very much alike Le Mayeur's 'Yanger-dans' (illustrated: Ubbens and Huizing Le Mayeur Painter - Traveller, 1995; p. 112) which was in the exhibition From Ritual to Romance at the National Museum Art Gallery in Singapore in January 1994. The composition of both paintings is similar: the focus lies in the middle where two female dancers, both wearing glittering headdresses, are dancing the Yanger dance. Opposite of them, four women are seated with their backs to the beholder and their arms moving in the air. Behind them, on the first plane of the canvas on the left side of the painting, men are depicted with drums and on the right side we notice a table with fruits, surrounded by three persons. The dancing scene is encircled by trees and persons standing, what altogether serves as a frame around the composition. In this manner Le Mayeur creates so-called vistas which are often seen in his work: an open space surrounded by men, trees or branches.
The repetition of bare backs from the seated dancing persons and the repetition of their arms in the air gives the painting a very strong and attractive rhythm. Although the entire scene breathes a very intimate atmosphere, Le Mayeur had a subtle way of suggesting spaciousness by the inclusion of air above and shimmering through the trees behind the temple in the background.
Le Mayeur painted this work in a very artistic and expressive style, characteristic of his pre-war period. The touch, the colouring and the light use are exponent for this vital period. His liberated mood at that time is also demonstrated by the unrestrained interpretation of anatomy. The bodies and especially the limbs in this painting are very elongated. The big hands and feet, the bent attitudes and some almost caricatured figures, stress his unorthodox manner of depicting people at that time.
A critic in The Strait Times in Singapore wrote: "His treatment is of a rare quality. He has brought down the elimination of detail to a fine art and there is hardly any modelling, yet the effect is all that it should be. Bold strokes of the brush on hands and feet and arms he has shown are all that is necessary after appreciating the line of the body". In his vigorous touch, he was using a lot of paint that he applied in forceful thick short strokes on the canvas. His technique was simple but effective. Flowers are just dots, leaves just strokes and by the use of light and dark colours, the painter suggested sunspots and depth.
Thus, Le Mayeur was able to capture the brightness and colourfulness of the scene through the brilliantly effective colouring. Apart from the subject it is also the warm colours that makes the painting as attractive as it is. The artist is an exponent of late European neo-Impressionism in which spirit he contrasted the beige, reddish, pink, orange and purple tones with clear jade green in the sarongs and foliage of the trees. The absence of other colours make this painting, in my opinion, very sophisticated. This intense and subtle use of colour in combination with sparkling light effects remain his main force. Le Mayeur understood the power of light as no other, he was a luminist pur sang.
Christie's is grateful to Drs. C. Z. Huizing for this catalogue entry.
FRIENDSHIP AND CULTURAL APPRECIATION: TEMPLE DANCERS IN AN AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Temple Dancers has come to auction from a private American collection. The previous owners of the painting, American Republican politician and businessman Charles H. Percy and his wife, Loraine, visited Le Mayeur in his Sanur beachfront villa in the 1950s and were fascinated by his works. Though culturally and geographically worlds apart from each other, the acquisition of Temple Dancers marked the genuine appreciation they felt for the region and its art.
Temple Dancers was then inherited by Gail Percy and her husband, Wade Davis, trained anthropologists who appreciated this scene of the classic Balinese Yanger dance. Gail Percy, in particular, is an avid advocate for dance and sits on the board of a number of American dance groups.
Temple Dancers (Lot 31) is a superb example of the impressionist way the Belgian painter Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès used to paint before World War II.
Le Mayeur arrived on the isle of Bali in 1932 and decided to stay forever in this sun-kissed corner of the world. Before that moment his search for inspiration brought him all over the world. During his travels to North Africa, India, Madagascar and Tahiti lasting at least a decade, he realised that what he was searching for was light, colour and beauty. Finally on Bali he found what he sought for. What inspired him most of all was his muse, the famous Legong dancer Ni Pollok (1917-1985), who was 37 years his younger and who became his wife. At that time, Balinese women must have seemed very exotic and elegant to the painter's European eyes. Among collectors from all over the world, next to his portraits of Pollok the painter is very well known for are his scenes of Bali life. Besides the settings in and around his own house and garden in Sanur, he painted women on the beach, women bathing in a river or women carrying fruits to the market and festivals.
The painting we are discussing here is very much alike Le Mayeur's 'Yanger-dans' (illustrated: Ubbens and Huizing Le Mayeur Painter - Traveller, 1995; p. 112) which was in the exhibition From Ritual to Romance at the National Museum Art Gallery in Singapore in January 1994. The composition of both paintings is similar: the focus lies in the middle where two female dancers, both wearing glittering headdresses, are dancing the Yanger dance. Opposite of them, four women are seated with their backs to the beholder and their arms moving in the air. Behind them, on the first plane of the canvas on the left side of the painting, men are depicted with drums and on the right side we notice a table with fruits, surrounded by three persons. The dancing scene is encircled by trees and persons standing, what altogether serves as a frame around the composition. In this manner Le Mayeur creates so-called vistas which are often seen in his work: an open space surrounded by men, trees or branches.
The repetition of bare backs from the seated dancing persons and the repetition of their arms in the air gives the painting a very strong and attractive rhythm. Although the entire scene breathes a very intimate atmosphere, Le Mayeur had a subtle way of suggesting spaciousness by the inclusion of air above and shimmering through the trees behind the temple in the background.
Le Mayeur painted this work in a very artistic and expressive style, characteristic of his pre-war period. The touch, the colouring and the light use are exponent for this vital period. His liberated mood at that time is also demonstrated by the unrestrained interpretation of anatomy. The bodies and especially the limbs in this painting are very elongated. The big hands and feet, the bent attitudes and some almost caricatured figures, stress his unorthodox manner of depicting people at that time.
A critic in The Strait Times in Singapore wrote: "His treatment is of a rare quality. He has brought down the elimination of detail to a fine art and there is hardly any modelling, yet the effect is all that it should be. Bold strokes of the brush on hands and feet and arms he has shown are all that is necessary after appreciating the line of the body". In his vigorous touch, he was using a lot of paint that he applied in forceful thick short strokes on the canvas. His technique was simple but effective. Flowers are just dots, leaves just strokes and by the use of light and dark colours, the painter suggested sunspots and depth.
Thus, Le Mayeur was able to capture the brightness and colourfulness of the scene through the brilliantly effective colouring. Apart from the subject it is also the warm colours that makes the painting as attractive as it is. The artist is an exponent of late European neo-Impressionism in which spirit he contrasted the beige, reddish, pink, orange and purple tones with clear jade green in the sarongs and foliage of the trees. The absence of other colours make this painting, in my opinion, very sophisticated. This intense and subtle use of colour in combination with sparkling light effects remain his main force. Le Mayeur understood the power of light as no other, he was a luminist pur sang.
Christie's is grateful to Drs. C. Z. Huizing for this catalogue entry.
FRIENDSHIP AND CULTURAL APPRECIATION: TEMPLE DANCERS IN AN AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Temple Dancers has come to auction from a private American collection. The previous owners of the painting, American Republican politician and businessman Charles H. Percy and his wife, Loraine, visited Le Mayeur in his Sanur beachfront villa in the 1950s and were fascinated by his works. Though culturally and geographically worlds apart from each other, the acquisition of Temple Dancers marked the genuine appreciation they felt for the region and its art.
Temple Dancers was then inherited by Gail Percy and her husband, Wade Davis, trained anthropologists who appreciated this scene of the classic Balinese Yanger dance. Gail Percy, in particular, is an avid advocate for dance and sits on the board of a number of American dance groups.