Arie Smit (1916-2016)
'Landscape with ricefields, hills and Mount Agung, Bali'
signed and dated 'Arie Smit. / 85' (lower right); signed and dated again, annotated 'Bali', and titled (on the reverse)
oil on canvas, 29x46 cm
Literature: -Luciënne Smit, 'Arie Smit, een schildersleven in de tropen', Woudrichem Pictures Publishers 2016, ill. p. 187.
Gently rolling hills, the commanding silhouette of the holy Mount Agung in the distance. In the foreground, the submerged sawa’s. Two trees give depth to the scene. The painting Landscape with rice fields, hills, and Mount Agung depicts a Balinese landscape in the vibrant range of colours that is so characteristic of Arie Smit's work.
Arie Smit (1916 -2016) executed this painting in 1985. Shortly thereafter it was purchased by the Dutch association of ex-KNIL fighters Bunga Melati, and given to Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands as a gift to celebrate the Bunga Melati-reunion in 1986. A photographer captured the handover.
The Chairman of Bunga Melati, Henk de Wit (1917-1996) was, like Arie de Smit, a slave labourer forced to work on the Burma Railway as a prisoner of war during the Second World War. They spent time together at several labour camps on this gruelling route. After the war they lost touch with each other but met up again at the end of the seventies. De Wit visited Smit a number of times on Bali and at the end of 1985 this painting was purchased through De Wit for the Dutch Prince.
Arie Smit totally loathed the way in which the painting was framed in the Netherlands, specifically the white framing. ‘I was shocked. An all-white frame. That hospital white is so hateful. The canvas itself contains a pure white cloud and a blue sky, blue mountains, the right shade of green for trees and hills, white again for the wet rice fields. In this context, a grey or beige - a tinted colour for the frame. I have never in my lifetime had a white frame around an oil painting. Framing is an art and Henk de Wit failed miserably. Anyway…. KNIL…… I will not reproach him’, he wrote to his family in Holland after seeing the photo of the handover to Prince Bernhard.
The path that this painting took - from royal possession to auction sale - is unfortunately unknown.
Luciënne Smit Author 'Arie Smit – A Painter’s Life in the Tropics'
Sale price
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
'Landscape with ricefields, hills and Mount Agung, Bali'
signed and dated 'Arie Smit. / 85' (lower right); signed and dated again, annotated 'Bali', and titled (on the reverse)
oil on canvas, 29x46 cm
Literature: -Luciënne Smit, 'Arie Smit, een schildersleven in de tropen', Woudrichem Pictures Publishers 2016, ill. p. 187.
Gently rolling hills, the commanding silhouette of the holy Mount Agung in the distance. In the foreground, the submerged sawa’s. Two trees give depth to the scene. The painting Landscape with rice fields, hills, and Mount Agung depicts a Balinese landscape in the vibrant range of colours that is so characteristic of Arie Smit's work.
Arie Smit (1916 -2016) executed this painting in 1985. Shortly thereafter it was purchased by the Dutch association of ex-KNIL fighters Bunga Melati, and given to Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands as a gift to celebrate the Bunga Melati-reunion in 1986. A photographer captured the handover.
The Chairman of Bunga Melati, Henk de Wit (1917-1996) was, like Arie de Smit, a slave labourer forced to work on the Burma Railway as a prisoner of war during the Second World War. They spent time together at several labour camps on this gruelling route. After the war they lost touch with each other but met up again at the end of the seventies. De Wit visited Smit a number of times on Bali and at the end of 1985 this painting was purchased through De Wit for the Dutch Prince.
Arie Smit totally loathed the way in which the painting was framed in the Netherlands, specifically the white framing. ‘I was shocked. An all-white frame. That hospital white is so hateful. The canvas itself contains a pure white cloud and a blue sky, blue mountains, the right shade of green for trees and hills, white again for the wet rice fields. In this context, a grey or beige - a tinted colour for the frame. I have never in my lifetime had a white frame around an oil painting. Framing is an art and Henk de Wit failed miserably. Anyway…. KNIL…… I will not reproach him’, he wrote to his family in Holland after seeing the photo of the handover to Prince Bernhard.
The path that this painting took - from royal possession to auction sale - is unfortunately unknown.
Luciënne Smit Author 'Arie Smit – A Painter’s Life in the Tropics'
Sale price
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
