Isabelle Gordon

My inspiration for my piece of work is Boschbrand (Forest fire), created by Raden Saleh in Indonesia (1849). Forest Fire is an immense composition showing animals chased by flames to the edge of a precipice. This relentless and tragic tale of life and death is powerfully narrated through the vivid depiction of the animals and the dramatic use of light and dark on a monumental scale. Painted during the last years of Raden Saleh's long sojourn in Europe, and the largest known example of the artist's oeuvre, the work manifests his technical mastery of the oil medium, realism, and the language of European Romanticism. Raden Saleh was born in 1811 in the village of Terboyo, near Semarang on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies. He was born into a noble Hadhrami family. Young Raden was first taught art in Borgor by the Belgian artist A.J. Payen. Payen acknowledged the youth's talent and persuaded the colonial government of the Netherlands to send Raden Saleh to the Netherlands to study art. Europe in 1829 and began to study under Cornelius Kruseman and Andreas Schelfhout, where he created many pieces of art, including Boschbrand created in 1849.

The reason why I chose to recreate a new forest fire was because I wanted to spread awareness about what is happening to the world, and how forest fires are now more and more frequent. My painting is a great floating island above the world that has burnt away, and the last part of growth and green slowly fading away like the rest of the world. I did this because one day if we keep polluting the environment this might end as our result, which is why I used dull and sad colours to indicate a dull and sad world that we have created. The number I have chosen to add to my painting is the number ‘18’, because this painting was created in the 18th century. My number was created by birds, but I made the 18 less visible because it’s a hidden meaning, a repeat of the 18th century, of the tragic forest fire. What I used to create this artwork was cardboard, poster paint, and different sized paintbrushes.