![COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Rudolf Bonnet voor zijn huis TMnr 60030468](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/COLLECTIE_TROPENMUSEUM_Rudolf_Bonnet_voor_zijn_huis_TMnr_60030468.jpg)
Johan Rudolf Bonnet (30 March 1895,
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
- 18 April 1978,
Laren) was a Dutch artist who lived much of his life in the town of
Ubud
Ubud is a town on the Indonesian island of Bali in Ubud District, located amongst rice paddies and steep ravines in the central foothills of the Gianyar regency. Promoted as an arts and culture centre, it has developed a large tourism industry. ...
on
Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
.
He was born into a Dutch
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
-descended family who had been
bakers for many generations. He attended the
Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten
The Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts) was founded in 1870 in Amsterdam. It is a classical academy, a place where philosophers, academics and artists meet to test and exchange ideas and knowledge. The school supports ...
in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
.
Years before Bali
In 1920, he journeyed to Italy with his parents, during which trip he produced an enormous number of drawings of people, village scenes and landscapes. He returned to Italy and rented a studio for some months. In Rome, he met
W.O.J. Nieuwenkamp
Wijnand Otto Jan Nieuwenkamp (Amsterdam, July 27, 1874 – Fiesole, April 23, 1950), was a Dutch multi-faceted autodidact. As an artist he was active as a painter, draftsman, sculptor, etcher, lithographer, and designer of book covers and of e ...
who advised him to visit Bali, but Bonnet first went to North Africa. The paintings he did on this trip were exhibited and sold sufficiently to enable him to sail to Bali
Bali
![Bonnet2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Bonnet2.jpg)
He arrived in Bali in 1929 where he met the German artist
Walter Spies
Walter Spies (15 September 1895 – 19 January 1942) was a Russian-born German primitivist painter, composer, musicologist, and curator. In 1923 he moved to Java, Indonesia. He lived in Yogyakarta and then in Ubud, Bali starting from 1927, whe ...
and the Dutch musicologist
Jaap Kunst
Jaap Kunst (12 August 1891 in Groningen – 7 December 1960 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch musicologist. He is credited with coining the term " ethnomusicology" as a more accurate name for the field then known as comparative musicology. Kunst studied ...
. With Kunst, he made a trip to
Nias
Nias ( id, Pulau Nias, Nias language: ''Tanö Niha'') (sometimes called Little Sumatra in English) is an island located off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Nias is also the name of the archipelago () of which the island is the centre, ...
, returning to Bali in 1930. He was invited to live in
Ubud
Ubud is a town on the Indonesian island of Bali in Ubud District, located amongst rice paddies and steep ravines in the central foothills of the Gianyar regency. Promoted as an arts and culture centre, it has developed a large tourism industry. ...
in by
Cokorda Gde Raka Sukawati. Between 1929 and 1940 Bonnet stayed in Ubud. When Spies moved to Campuhan, Bonnet took over Spies' water palace in Ubud and set up his studio. He became involved in community issues including healthcare and education. He was also very involved in the Pita Maha movement, which encouraged local artists to raise their artistic standards. After the Japanese arrived in Bali, Bonnet remained free until 1942 when he was ordered to be sent to Sulawesi. He spent the remainder of World War II in internment camps in
Pare-Pare
Parepare is a city (''kota'') in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, located on the southwest coast of Sulawesi, about north of the provincial capital of Makassar. A port town, it is one of the major population centers of the Bugis people. The city had a p ...
,
Bolong
''Bolong'' (meaning "Bo's dragon") is a genus of iguanodontian dinosaur known from the Early Cretaceous-age Yixian Formation of western Liaoning Province, China. It lived about 125 million years ago in the earliest Aptian.
Discovery and naming
...
and Makassar. In 1947 Bonnet returned to Bali where he built his house and studio in Campuan. Despite the deterioration in the relationship between The Republic of Indonesia and the Netherlands Bonnet was able to stay due to his relationship with President
Sukarno
Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967.
Sukarno was the leader of ...
who had collected 14 of his works. He was expelled from Indonesia in 1957 after he refused to finish a portrait of President
Sukarno
Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967.
Sukarno was the leader of ...
; he was able to return 15 years later.
Pita Maha
Bonnet, together with
Walter Spies
Walter Spies (15 September 1895 – 19 January 1942) was a Russian-born German primitivist painter, composer, musicologist, and curator. In 1923 he moved to Java, Indonesia. He lived in Yogyakarta and then in Ubud, Bali starting from 1927, whe ...
,
I Gusti Nyoman Lempad
I Gusti Nyoman Lempad (1862?–1978) was a Balinese stone sculptor, architect (''undagi'' in Balinese) and painter who built palaces and temples in Ubud and its neighboring villages. Lempad's exact birth date, as is the case for many Balinese ...
and
Cokorde Gde Agung Sukawati formed the ''Pita Maha (Great Spirit, Guiding inspiration)'' in 1936 to select the artists whose works were found to be good enough to be sold in a number of galleries and to be included in exhibitions elsewhere in the Indies, The Netherlands and the United States. The Pita Maha disintegrated after Spies was expelled, having been convicted of indecent behavior. Bonnet also left and after that the war broke out.
Museum Puri Lukisan
Museum Puri Lukisan, 'The palace of Paintings' was constructed according to Bonnet's design to house the collection of high-quality art that Bonnet and Cokorda Gde Agung Sukawati had assembled. Construction commenced in 1954. After his expulsion in 1957 many attempts were made to persuade him to return to Bali. He finally returned in 1972, when he helped expand the museum and organized an opening exhibition.
Death
Rudolf Bonnet died in Laren, Holland on April 18, 1978 after a long illness. His body was cremated and the ashes were brought to Bali where they were burnt together in a great cremation ceremony with his friend Cokorda Gde Agung Sukawati.
Gallery
COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Een stilleven met poempoenen geschilderd door Rudolf Bonnet TMnr 60030141.jpg, Still life with pumpkins (1950s)
Ni Radji Bali 1954.jpg, Ni Radji Bali (1954)
COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Het door Rudolf Bonnet ontworpen monument ter nagedachtenis aan de kunstenaar Walter Spies in Campuhan Ubud TMnr 60030255.jpg, Monument dedicated to Walter Spies
One of Bonnet's master works Market Scene.jpg, Market scene
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonnet, Rudolf
1895 births
1978 deaths
20th-century Dutch painters
20th-century Indonesian painters
Dutch male painters
Painters from Amsterdam
20th-century Dutch male artists
Artists from Bali
20th-century Dutch East Indies people
Dutch prisoners of war in World War II
World War II prisoners of war held by Japan
Dutch people of the Dutch East Indies
Dutch emigrants to Indonesia
People from Gianyar Regency