Museum Le Mayeur, Bali Overview

Sitting between the Inna Grand Bali Beach hotel and Jalan Hang Tuah, the magnificent Le Mayeur Museum can be found on the beachfront of Sanur at Sindhum in Bali, right behind a row of stalls selling souvenirs and artworks. The fascinating Le Mayeur Museum is the first museum in Sanur and home to Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres’ work as well as an extensive collection of the traditional art of Bali along with some local artefacts that he himself had collected while staying here.

Le Mayeur used all kinds of materials as the base of his paintings, which included wood, canvas, paper, cardboard, and plywood, among other things. The glorious museum is rich in Balinese culture and its art history and draws in huge crowds of art enthusiasts from places near and far throughout the year.

History

Home to the personal history as well as artworks of Le Mayeur, the captivating Le Mayeur Museum formerly used to be the mansion of the aforesaid painter and his wife. Born in Brussels, Le Mayeur had spent the 1920s travelling around the world.

When he arrived in Bali in 1932, he was so drawn to its beauty that he decided to settle there. Taking residence in a quaint little village called Klandis to the east of Denpasar, he met the renowned traditional Legong dancer named Ni Pollok, who was only fifteen years old at the time.

Soon after that, they got married, and she became his muse. In fact, many of Le Mayeur’s paintings that are displayed in the museum are her portraits.

Things to Do

The alluring Le Mayeur Museum houses around eighty paintings that had been created on different mediums. The main building features a number of classical Balinese elements, along with red terrazzo floor tiles as well as sculpted stone walls.

The furnishings of the museum are beautifully dominated by intricately carved wood, and on the window, sills are displayed motifs that have been inspired by the famous Balinese shadow puppets, popularly referred to as wayangs. The window shutters are wonderfully carved to depict the story of the Hindu epic, Ramayana.

With an interior that is adorned with the conventional Balinese feature of woven fibres, the museum emits a naturalistic aura. A walk through the grandiose museum shall give one a deeper insight into Le Mayeur’s study rooms and art ateliers, bedrooms, long corridors and bathrooms, as well as Ni Pollok’s vanity corner and beauty rooms.

The mesmerizing museum showcases a number of household items which include intricately carved cupboards, flower vases of numerous sizes, and an antique octagonal teak wood table that has been carved with elegance, among other things.

How To Reach Museum Le Mayeur

Situated in Sanur, the dignified Le Mayeur Museum lies at a distance of only six kilometers from Denpasar and may be reached within fifteen minutes by private transport via Jl. Hang Tuah and Jl. Raya Puputan.

From the Ngurah Rai International Airport, Le Mayeur Museum lies at a distance of seventeen kilometers, and it takes about a half hour to get there by private transport via Jl. Bypass Ngurah Rai.

Following the route via Jl. Raya Puputan, it takes a little over thirty minutes to reach Le Mayeur Museum from Seminyak, which lies at a distance of fourteen kilometers.

The only means of private transportation is the taxi.