Footnotes

Provenance
Collection of Mr and Mrs Edwin Maurice Glover, UK.
Gifted by the above to the parents of the present owners in 1985.
Thence in the family by descent.
Private collection, UK.

勒邁耶
林中祈愿·巴厘
油彩 畫布
約1933年作

簽名：J Le Mayeur (左下) 畫題（畫背）

來源
英國Edwin Maurice Glover夫婦舊藏
由上述人士於1985年贈予現藏家父母
後經家族流傳至今
英國私人收藏


'I am an Impressionist, Sir!'

Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès was a Belgian Post-Impressionist painter born in Brussels.

He pursued a life of travel and painting which classifies him as a so-called traveller-painter. After a short period in Belgium, his artistic journeys took him to, for instance, the South of France, Venice, India and eventually Bali, Indonesia where he would settle permanently in 1932.

In his paintings, particularly in Prière dans la Forêt, Bali (Prayer in the Forest, Bali) featured in our sale, he developed a very distinctive style of compositions in a lush, very decorative and colourful palette with the use of the strong sunny tropical light and a deep fascination with the Balinese culture and local tradition.

His favourite and later only muse as well as a much younger wife, the beautiful Legong (Temple) dancer Ni Pollok (d.1986), appears in most of his works, both in oil and on paper. He remained in Bali until 1958 when he became fatally ill and left for his homeland Belgium where, still in the same year, passed away in a Brussels hospital, leaving behind a rather unique oeuvre that blend Western painterly techniques with Indonesian subject matter.

The painting Prière dans la Forêt, Bali is a large-scale oil painting that captures a serene spiritual moment. It represents the artist's signature style, characterised by his distinctive impasto technique and use of vivid colouring. The scene portrays Balinese women immersed in a religious ritual amid a forested setting. The figures are surrounded by dappled light filtering through the dense canopy, with soft focus transitions of emerald and gold hues reflecting the tropical ambiance.

The composition is harmoniously structured by Le Mayeur. The figures are placed rhythmically across the canvas, creating a gentle visual cadence. His brushwork is loose yet deliberate, echoing Impressionist influences from artists like Theo van Rysselberghe, Claude Monet and Paul Gauguin, while maintaining a strong sense of form and atmosphere which are characteristic of his autonomous style.

The above-mentioned work, painted in 1933, emerges from Le Mayeur's early years in Bali. Between 1900 and 1940 many European mainly Dutch artists travelled the Island of the Gods like Bonnet, Hofker, Arie Smit but also the German Walter Spies and the Swiss painter Theo Meijer. Le Mayeur, in his paintings, embraced a vibrant and sort of exoticized aesthetic that appealed very much to European and American tourists and travellers at that time. In a relatively brief period of time, he created enough works for an exhibition.

His first exhibition took place between 28 February until 8 March 1933 at The Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) in Singapore and another two followed in 1935 and 1937.

The 1933 exhibition, titled 'Exhibition of Bali Paintings', showcased about 30 paintings and was immediately a great success. It might be the case that Mr Edwin Maurice Glover (d.1983), who in that exact period worked for the Straits Times in Singapore, purchased the picture in this very exhibition. Mr and Mrs Glover were the first owners of Prière dans la Forêt, Bali, and they later gifted it to the parents of the present owners, as a symbol of their long-standing friendship. The painting can be compared with another 1933 work in the same show in Singapore catalogued as number 7 in the monography (cf. Ubbens/Huizing, Le Mayeur,1995, p.201). While the exact content of that piece is unclear, it likely shares thematic and stylistic elements with Prière dans la Forêt, Bali. However, Prière dans la Forêt, Bali stands out for its contemplative tone and compositional complexity, suggesting a more spiritual, meditative intention, with a heightened sensitivity to light and colour, compared to Le Mayeur's more sensuous or performative portrayals of Balinese dancers.

Text by Drs. Jop Ubbens, co-author of the monography on life and work by Le Mayeur.