Portraits of Ni Noneh, Ni Asoeg and Gusti Kompiang

In this single pastel Hofker combines three separate portrayals, with each of them replicating some of his most successful compositions that came into being in Bali between 1938 and 1943, seemingly as a tribute to his most celebrated models. The models are: Ni Noneh (lower left), Ni Asoeg (centre), and possibly Ni Goesti Kompiang Mawar (right). Ni Noneh is portrayed in one of Hofker 's best oil paintings from 1940 (Bruce Carpenter,Willem Hofker, painter of Bali, 1993, illus. p. 90, and frontcover). Ni Asoeg appears in the exact same pose in a slightly smaller pastel from 1947, against an empty background with just two sparsely sketched baskets in front of her (anon. sale; Gerum, The Hague, 27 November 1995, lot 129). A lithograph of the same subject (mirror image) in an unknown edition was executed in The Netherlands, and contains a richly detailed background with many 'stage properties'. Gusti Kompiang figures in many of Hofker 's compositions. She modelled amongst others for his famous 'ardja dancer'. The same figure striking the same pose, features in an oil painting dated 1943 (anon. sale; Christie's Amsterdam, 25 October, 1995, lot 129, mirror image).

The present lot is most likely executed in 1947 or 48, and was probably intended to serve Hofker as preparatory study for his graphic work. After his repatriaton to The Netherlands, Hofker, for years executed paintings and pastels after his sketches and studies made in Bali. In that period he particularly recorded his favourite subjects into etchings and lithographs. It is not unusual for Hofker to integrate different models in to one compositon. He excuted comparable pastels as preparatory studies for a calendar that integrated the combined elements from his Balinese oeuvre executed between 1938 an 1947 (cf. Bruce Carpenter p.141, calendar design). He may have had the same intention with a composition similar to the present lot.