On the Character of the Merapi Eruption in central Java

The two paintings which we here reproduce in colour are the work of Raden Saleh, the first Javanese to receive a Western education as painter, and are dated 1865. They represent the Merapi, by day and by night, obviously during the eruption of 1865. Raden Saleh Sarief Bastaman was born about 1814 at Semarang. At an early age he gave signs of an unusual artistic talent, which draw the attention of Payen 1).