Lot 128: Gerard Pieter Adolfs O/C Indonesian Street Scene Painting

Gerard Pieter Adolfs (Java/Netherlands, 1898-1968) oil on canvas painting — likely set in Bali or Java — with two figures seated beside a blue door and before a whitewashed wall. The bright red blossoms of a large royal poinciana plant curl around the wall and cast a long shadow at right. Signed lower left. Double-framed in a giltwood frame affixed to a painted wooden frame with gilt fillet and patterned, green liner. Sight: 11 1/2 in H x 15 1/4 in W. Frame: 22 in H x 26 in W. Biographical Note: Gerard Pieter Adolfs was born in Java to a Dutch father and Indo-European mother.  Adolfs studied architecture in the Netherlands before he returned to Java, where he initially designed houses and worked in commercial art before he changed his focus to painting. He specialised in scenes of Java, Bali, Japan, and North Africa and especially landscapes, street, and genre scenes. He returned to Holland shortly before the German occupation in 1940. In 1944, a fire during an exhibition destroyed many of his paintings. He travelled frequently but lived primarily in the Netherlands for the remainder of his life. His sister, Julia Henriette Jaarsma-Adolfs, became the first Indo-European woman to practice law in what is now Indonesia. 

CONDITION: Overall very good condition, with 1-inch vertical lacuna to center of green vegetation at left.