Raden Franciscus Xavier Basoeki Abdullah | IAS 2019 € 24.000,-

The Holy Family

signed ‘F.B. Abdullah.’ (lower left)

oil on canvas, 91,5×35,5 cm

Last May the rediscovery of an important painting by Basoeki Abdullah was breaking news, not only for the Indonesian fine art community but also for the national newspapers. A monumental painting depicting the Ascension of the Virgin Mary had been rediscovered in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, where it was found in the basement warehouse of the Jesuit Society nursery home. Clad in a kebaya and batik wraparound, the Virgin Mary ascends to the heavens in Basoeki Abdullah’s Maria Assumpta, a significant piece of artwork that helped shape the local imagery of this revered Catholic figure in Indonesia. Basoeki Abdullah painted Maria Assumpta in 1935 and gave it to a Catholic foundation that had granted him a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 1933.

The oil-paint canvas depicts the Virgin Mary in Javanese attire ascending to heaven. He said the idea of painting the Virgin Mary in a graceful kebaya and batik wraparound had been inspired by a verse in Isaiah 61:10 of the Bible, which reads: “I delight greatly in the Lord […] For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness […] like a bride adorned with her jewels.” “For me, who was born and raised in Java, the clothing of salvation and robe of righteousness for a bride are a kebaya and batik wraparound”, Basoeki said in an interview for a 1985 book by Agus Dermawan T., ‘R. Basoeki Abdullah R.A: Duta Seni Lukis Indonesia (R. Basoeki Abdullah, RA: An Envoy of Indonesian Art)’. During his stay in the 1930’s in the Netherlands Basoeki Abdullah made several smaller versions of the Virgin Mary, representing various stories of her life. The Venduehuis The Hague presents two paintings with the Virgin Mary by Basoeki Abdullah. One of Mary reaching out to rescue sinners and one with the Holy Family and the new born Christ child.

Source: Jakarta Post, June 19, 2019