작품 상세

The present lot depicts a portrait of a man posed looking radiant in his striped shirt. Dullah was well known as a master portrait artist. This self-taught artist admitted that Affandi and S. Sudjojono were his great teachers, but in fact his creations which evidently followed the school of realism were quite divergent to the works of the above two great masters. From the early days of the independence, Dullah formed a close friendship with Soekarno, the first President of the Republic of Indonesia. In 1949, Dullah led a group of young artists to exhibit live battle scenes during the war of Indonesia’s independence against the Dutch. The works were displayed at the Legermuseum in Holland and had gained great interest and the works were documented in the book Karya dalam Peperangan dan Revolusi (1978). Dullah was also appointed by Soekarno to care for all the President’s art collections and was mandated to be curator of the state painting collections. He often accompanied the president on his trips here at home as well as abroad. Consequently, Dullah moved to his hometown Solo and settled there with his family but spent most of his creative time in Bali together with a group of his pupils. The group settled in Ubud and then moved to Pejeng. Dullah also ran an art gallery in Mas where most of his good works were on display for sale.