Romualdo Frederico Locatelli

The work is in good condition overall, as is the board, which is free from warping and cracks. Upon close observation, there is evidence of minor wear and handling around the edges of the painting, along with associated minute paint loss located on the top right, bottom middle and middle left margin. Examination under ultraviolet light reveals a general touch-up of the background and figure, in particular on the area above the raised arm (top left quadrant), elbow, underarm, face, torso and knees. The condition is not visible to the naked eye. Framed.
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“…I believe that it needs to be made clear about cultural discourse and exchange within a culture that what is commonly circulated by it is not “truth” but representations…Thus all of Orientalism stands forth and away from the Orient: that Orientalism makes sense at all depends more on the West than on the Orient, and this sense is directly indebted to various Western techniques that make the Orient visible, clear, “there” in discourse about it. At most the “real” Orient provoked [the artist] to his vision; it rarely guided it”.

 - Edward W. Said¹

Throughout Southeast Asia’s history of foreign relations, there have been many moments of cross-cultural connections that were immortalized upon the canvas. Italian painter Romualdo Frederico Locatelli is one such individual whose sojourns transformed his oeuvre. The artist experienced an aesthetic rebirth when he traveled to the Dutch East Indies. A keen observer of human expression, the paintings are an intimate look of the people whom he befriended there. It may be said that the region became a muse for those who found themselves upon her soil, for Southeast Asia had a lasting impression upon the artist’s visual vocabulary.

Portrait of a Nude shows a young Balinese girl in repose, and is demonstrative of the Orientalist-inspired motifs that the artist favored from the late thirties and onwards. Locatelli was a great admirer of portraiture, for the compositions celebrated the beauty and primal essence of the physical form. The present piece is no exception, for what was a private moment between two individuals, has become a universal exchange of compassion that resonates with the audience.

Born into a family of artisans in Northern Italy, Locatelli’s adolescence was filled with traditional art classes, while also assisting his father with the maintenance and decoration of frescos for the parish church in San Filastro. Under the guidance of Ponziano Loverini, the artist studied at the Academia Carrara, and at twenty-years old held his first solo exhibition. During this period Locatelli’s star was steadily on the rise. In 1933 he relocated to Rome where he was requested to paint a portrait of King Victor Emmanuel II. The painting was selected as part of the 1938 Venice Bienale, and subsequently attracted a wide group of interested benefactors and admirers. Five years after the success of the Bienale and with much aplomb, the artist was invited with his wife to visit the Dutch East Indies as a celebrated artist in residence. Notable collectors of Locatelli’s works were Benito Mussolini and Pope Pius XI.

It was from 1938 to the artist’s death in 1943, that he largely dedicated his portraits to Indonesia. Much of his oeuvre was inspired by Neo-Classicist and Orientalist aesthetics favored by artists such as Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and Jean Léon Gérôme. The artworks during those years in Southeast Asia were devoted to women, for the artist strived to capture their “otherness” within the paintings. As he once described a Balinese model: “…just look at her slender arms and long legs, her delicate hands and feet, her body so glamorous like that of one used to dance training. Her expressive eyes, small nose, a full mouth, her hair so thick and glossy, she is like a Goddess. Her golden brown skin, so tanned by the sun, looks like velvet. I would call her very beautiful”². The present work is reminiscent of Ingres’ 1814 painting La Grande Odalisque (Fig. 1). The women’s sensuality inspires the narrative, while subsequently emphasizing the “maleness” of the audience’s gaze. It is a world built up of artifice to accentuate the natural beauty of the female form.

Works such as Gambuh Dancer (Fig. 2), and Young Dancer and Drummer (Fig. 3) also address this theme of the artist-subject relationship. Therefore it may be said that the artist’s Southeast Asian paintings are a celebration of womanhood, rather than mere pictorial representations of local cultures. Portrait of a Nude perfectly exemplifies this desire, for the nymph-like girl touches the audience’s emotions, and expresses the artist’s admiration for a world that was not his own.

Benjamin Disraeli once wrote that the “East is a career”³, and this sentiment may be applied to Locatelli’s period in Southeast Asia as well. Though the artist received acclaim in Europe, it was the artworks produced abroad that established Locatelli as part of the region’s art history. Unfortunately the artist’s tenure in Indonesia was not to last. Outside of the archipelago, World War II was slowly escalating, with foreigners overseas unable to escape the political turmoil. Shortly after an exhibition in Bandung and Jakarta in 1939, Locatelli and his wife relocated to the Philippines. They lived there until his mysterious disappearance in 1943 when the artist left to go bird hunting and never returned.

Though painted in Bali, Portrait of a Nude accompanied the artist to Manila, witnessing the occupation by the Japanese, the destruction of the city, and the end of World War II. Prior to his disappearance, the artist had gifted the present piece to his German friend Ernest Helge Christian Berg, author of such books as And Yet the Twain, as well as the owner of the Berg Department Store chain in Manila. Portrait of a Nude stayed within that family till the present-day.

Ultimately withstanding the influxes of history and traveling 13,000 miles during her lifetime, the young sitter is testimony to Locatelli’s creative legacy as a European artist in Southeast Asia. Thus the painting transcends its physical properties, elevating the Balinese girl from her role as a passive sitter, to one who inspires those around her. It is an intimate portrayal of a life lived elsewhere.

 ¹ Edward W. Said, Orientalism, Penguin Classics, London, 2003, pg. 21-22.

 ² Erminia Locatelli Rogers, Romualdo Locatelli: The Ultimate Voyage of an Italian Artist in the Far East, Darga Fine Arts Editions, Indonesia, 1994, pg. 43.

³ Refer to 1, pg. xxvi