Raden Saleh Sjarif Boestaman

Raden Saleh Sjarif Boestaman (1811 - 23 April 1880) was a Javanese politician and a pioneering Arab-Javanese Indonesian Romantic painter. He was regarded as the first "modern" artist from Indonesia (then Dutch East Indies), and his paintings corresponded with the nineteenth-century romanticism popular in Europe at the time. In his work, he also expressed his cultural roots and inventiveness.

Raden Saleh Syarif Bustaman was born in 1811 in the village of Terboyo, near Semarang on the Indonesian island of Java (present-day Indonesia). He was born into a noble Hadhrami family; his father was Sayyid Husen bin Alwi bin Awal bin Yahya, whose family had arrived in Java in the seventeenth century via Surat in India. He was Sayyid Abdullah Bustam's grandson through his mother, Raden Ayu Sarif Husen bin Alwi bin Awal. Raden Saleh was married to the famous religious leader Habib Ali Kwitang through his sister Roqayah.

Saleh became ill unexpectedly on Friday, April 23, 1880. He claimed that one of his servants poisoned him and that he died as a result; however, a post-mortem examination revealed that his circulatory system was disrupted due to a clot near his heart. Saleh was buried two days later in Bogor's Kampung Empang. According to the Javanese Bode newspaper, his funeral was "attended by various landheeren and Dutch officials, and even by curious students from nearby school," on 28 April 1880.

Birthdate: 1811
Died: April 23, 1880