Arthur Eland - Indonesia Java 1930 oil painting "sawa with people in mountainous landscape" signed - Sold

• The twin brothers Leo and Arthur Eland saw the light of day in 1884 in Salatiga on Java. Both brothers followed a drawing course in the Indies and although a military career was provided for both, Leo soon preferred a career as a painter where Arthur chose the military career. Arthur also continued to find time to paint.

Leo was a prolific painter, so much so that an anonymous art critic warned him to avoid 'the kilometer picture' after an exhibition at the Kunstkring in Batavia at the end of 1918.
Leo's work was sought after, the painter sold well and his reputation grew. Evidence of the status he had acquired was that he had been commissioned by the Ministry of Colonies to make paintings for the International Colonial Exhibition that was held in Paris from 6 May to 6 November 1931. And although he had exchanged the Indies for the Netherlands around 1920, he returned there in 1928 to gain inspiration for this honourable commission. In 1930 he travelled back to the Netherlands on the ss Baloeran, and shortly afterwards he took up a studio near Paris. He made a number of large works for the Dutch pavilion that were unfortunately lost in the fire of 28 June 1931, as were a number of works by the other painter chosen for this purpose, Charles Sayers.
Brother Arthur was much less known. He had an exhibition in Leiden at the end of 1940 in the art gallery 'Pro Arte' and that was it.
Leo Eland, however, exhibited many times, especially in the Dutch East Indies and in the Netherlands, and as early as 1916 or shortly thereafter various works by Eland, Van Aerschot and Van Aken and other Indian artists were exhibited in several places in America.
Leo Eland can be characterized as a typical 'Beautiful Indies' painter, a light-footed impressionism that is pleasant to look at. Smoothly painted colorful paintings of the Indian landscape with its volcanoes, rice fields, forests and coastal scenes. He painted landscapes of both Java and Sumatra.
Arthur's work is also impressionistic, but more subdued than Leo's and is characterised by a more muted use of colour.
Leo Eland died in 1952 in The Hague, four years after his brother Arthur.