WILLEM IMANDT (1882-1967)
Gunung Sumbing (3,371 m - 11, 060ft) - on right
Gunung Sundoro (3,136 m - 10, 289 ft) - on left
Indonesia (Central Java)
In Mount Sundoro and Mount Sumbing, oil on canvas, 1939
The volcanoes
Gunung Sumbing (3,371 m - 11, 060ft) on right on this painting, is an active stratovolcano in Central Java, Indonesia, symmetrical with Gunung Sundoro. The only report of historical eruptions is from 1730. It has created a small phreatic crater at the summit.
Gunung Sundoro (3,136 m - 10, 289 ft) also called Sindara or Sindoro, on left on this painting, is an active stratovolcano in Central Java, Indonesia. Parasitic craters and cones are found in the northwest-southern flanks; the largest is called Kembang. A small lava dome occupies the volcano's summit. Historical eruptions have been mostly mild-to-moderate.
The painter
Willem Imandt was born in a tiny village in Zealand Flanders, close to the Dutch-Belgian border. He successfully started a career as teacher, with posts in his birth region and Amsterdam. He was also a talented draughtsman, without more than a basic education in this field. In 1908, he went to the Dutch East Indies, where he was employed in a number of cities on Sulawesi and Java until his retirement in 1929. At that point, he took up his old vocation and had a successful career as a painter.
Imandt developed his own style. He concentrated on a few themes - landscapes and marines - and earned growing appreciation, that was also reflected in the prices his works fetched. His income from painting soon surpassed his teacher's salary. When he repatriated he was a wealthy man, who in Flanders continued to paint to fulfill the demand of other repatriates for a tangible and nostalgic memory of their Indies years. The Indies still were alluring Imandt, and in 1938 he returned as a famous painter. He was, as all Dutchmen, interned in a Japanese camp, as was his wife. They survived and returned for good in 1946. But as a painter oblivion was his fate. He died in The Hague in 1967. Now, Imandt is a respected part of the revival in interest (as well as a beneficiary of proceeds from the auctions).
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
