Colonial Philippines Painting

Oil Painting by Malcolm Fraser

dimensions (without frame): 46cm x 38cm

This superbly composed oil-on-canvas painting shows a group of six Malay or Javanese figures (one woman and five men) all in traditional costume. The five men are playing a card game, perhaps one of the Malay card games main tiga ‘lei, main sakopong, or main chabut. The young woman tends a tea or coffee pot which sits on a charcoal brazier. She sits on a woven bamboo mat, and all are enclosed within woven bamboo walls. Each attendee has a tea or coffee cup and saucer.

The painting is in an old gilt frame and has a museum or collection plate attached to the front which says ‘Malcolm Fraser: Datos in Philippine Islands.’ The painting itself is signed ‘M. Fraser’ in the bottom right-hand corner.

It is not clear where the setting for this painting is, despite the attached label. The term ‘dato’ is an honorific used among Malays. The Muslim people of the southern Philippines have many similarities with Malay and some Indonesian ethnic groups. But each of the men in the painting wear the

blangkon or belangkon, the traditional male headgear of central Java. Certainly, the painting is of an Austronesian group of Southeast Asia, and is masterful in its execution.

The yellowed patina of the painting itself, and the patina of the reverse of the painting and the frame all suggest a 19th century dating.

UK art market