Museum Le Mayeur

Sanur was definitely the yardstick by which the island's earlier art movement was measured against. Described as the Mecca of Bali's early tourism development, Sanur was the main attraction that a wave of international travelers helped make into the island's finest destination, especially during the 1920's and the following few decades.


Le Mayeur and his model wife, Legong dance icon, Ni Polok.



The Dutch were the first to arrive in the little village in 1906 through a bloody military campaign. Admitting its mistake after much international criticism of destroying the island's cultural dignity and heritage, the colonial government quickly changed their approach and successfully campaigned the island as a perfect hideaway, especially among the European elite.

One among the many dignitaries was the Belgian aristocrat-artist Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres, known simply as Le Mayeur. Like the so many classical stories where the character travels the world over, is eventually stranded in a strange land, falls in love with a local girl and lives a happy life in his newfound dream, Le Mayeur had been traveling the world over, his trip taking him from France to Madagascar then to Tahiti, ending up in Bali in 1932, falling in love with a popular Legong girl, Ni Polok. He then married her and went on to live a happy life with his ultimate love, and became a legendary painter. His sold-out painting exhibition in Singapore a year afterwards was no less than the proof.

Le Mayeur returned and settled down on a piece of land near Sanur beach, where he built a large villa and garden and spent the rest of his life on his wife's land.

The villa is now the government-run Museum Le Mayeur, portraying what else but his love story with his model-wife and the island's culture, with not less than 90 paintings. Indonesian President Soekarno and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru were among the many dignities that stepped into the museum, impressed by the artist's post impressionistic works.

By Supardi Asmorobangun, courtesy photos