Arie Smit (1916-2016)

A view on Jalan Menteng Raya, Jakarta

signed, annotated and dated 'Djakarta / 1952 / Arie Smit' (lower right)

watercolour on paper, 52x61 cm

Provenance: -Jacob Vredenbregt, Jakarta, gifted to the present owner.

This lot will be provided with a Certificate of Authenticity by Mrs Lucienne Smit, writer of the book 'Arie Smit, a Painters Life in the Tropics', Woudrichem 2016.

Jacob Gerardus Vredenbregt (1926 - 2020) was a Dutch anthropologist, art collector and writer who had lived in Indonesia since 1968.

He spent most of his life in Indonesia, even after independence was declared in 1948 and the repatriation of the Dutch East Indies began. Vredenbregt was an eyewitness to all major political and religious upheavals in Indonesia.

Vredenbregt was professor of anthropology at Universitas Indonesia in Jakarta. He obtained his PhD at Leiden in 1968 with The Baweanners in their motherland and in Singapore. November 17th 2020 he passed away in his hometown Jakarta.