Ernst Agerbeek (1903-1945)
A Peranakan man in interior, eating rice with tea and opium on the side
Signed and dated E Agerbeek 1927
Oil on canvas, 50 x 35 cm
Only little is known about the half-Dutch/half-Indonesian painter Ernst Agerbeek, regarded as one of the more important painters in the former Dutch East Indies. The artist is best known for his genre paintings of the Chinese population in Indonesia or the Peranakan community. The only information on the artist is based on his oeuvre and primary sources such as birth registration and immigration. Agerbeek was born in the Netherlands and was trained as an artist in Brussels. In the early 1920s, he went to Indonesia, where he became a drawing teacher in a secondary school and a member of the Vereeniging van Beeldende Kunstenaars in Batavia. During the Japanese occupation during World War II, Agerbeek escaped imprisonment in a Japanese concentration camp for he was half Indonesian. However, in 1945, disaster struck. At 42, Agerbeek was executed by the Japanese after the accusation of being part of the resistance. So far, only about twenty Indonesian paintings by his hand are known.
Signed and dated E Agerbeek 1927
Oil on canvas, 50 x 35 cm
Only little is known about the half-Dutch/half-Indonesian painter Ernst Agerbeek, regarded as one of the more important painters in the former Dutch East Indies. The artist is best known for his genre paintings of the Chinese population in Indonesia or the Peranakan community. The only information on the artist is based on his oeuvre and primary sources such as birth registration and immigration. Agerbeek was born in the Netherlands and was trained as an artist in Brussels. In the early 1920s, he went to Indonesia, where he became a drawing teacher in a secondary school and a member of the Vereeniging van Beeldende Kunstenaars in Batavia. During the Japanese occupation during World War II, Agerbeek escaped imprisonment in a Japanese concentration camp for he was half Indonesian. However, in 1945, disaster struck. At 42, Agerbeek was executed by the Japanese after the accusation of being part of the resistance. So far, only about twenty Indonesian paintings by his hand are known.
Part of the Indonesian Archipelago collection.