The images of Siam, as depicted by Chini with power of light and colors, strikingly portray Siam in numerous dimensions. Chini’s freedom of expression was like a point in time where he could break free from the movement of artistic intensity in Europe ever growing during the period before World War I. Rather, he turned his senses to the variety of ambiances, landscapes, art and cultures in multiple forms while he lived in Siam.
Looking at landscapes in Chini’s paintings, Chini, although with inner tranquility and a sense of loneliness, painted them with quick brushstrokes while observing and perceiving colors, light and air of the nature around him. Bright light at the horizon together with the sky in red, orange or gold which appeared before him was depicted in his works, such as Scenery on the Manam (1911), Moment of loneliness by the Menam (1912). Through Chini’s works, we can appreciate that through his imagination and feeling, he tried to bring invisible light into his work. Each and every color seemed sensitive to the light, existing in different instances, situations and settings surrounding the artist.
A number of paintings Chini produced during his time in Bangkok depicts architecture in Siam; painting with unique characteristics, distinct from architectural styles in the West. Like any western traveler who came to Siam, Chini did not miss a visit to Buddhist monasteries, a tour through rivers and canals – which were plentiful at that time – and stopovers in neighborhoods of Bangkok, especially in Chinatown, to look for handicrafts, artworks, religious images, goods and so forth. If we look back, through Galileo Chini’s works, at the Siamese society of more than a hundred year ago, we can imagine the view of Phadung Krung Kasem canal with both banks full of shady plants and trees, or the view of beautiful pagodas, walls and tiled-roofs within monasteries amid serenity and shady trees under either sunlight or moonlight. Such images include Canal in Bangkok (1912), In the Temple (1912), At a Buddhist Monastery in Bangkok (1912), etc. The painter who came from a far away land was then living his life with changes in nature and the surrounding environment in a territory where the ambiance was so different from his usual Europe.
In addition to outdoor landscapes, Chini’s works displayed views of Siamese society in different dimensions. Paintings borne from Chini’s observation of Bangkok life reflect exceptionally attractive outlooks. From quite afar, he observed those scenes as an ethnographer who did not wish to interfere with life as it was. His painting thus, seem intriguing and stir a certain curiously about their intended meaning, for instance, in the Temple (1912), A night at Wat Phra Kaew (1912), Gambling Den of San-Pen [Sam Peng] (1912).
Lohapon, Neungreudee. “The Process to Frescos”, in Lohapon, Neungreudee. Galileo Chini: Painter of Two Kingdoms. Bangkok: Amarin Printing & Publishing, 2012.
