Born in Padangtegal, Gianyar, Bali in 1911, Anak Agung Gede Sobrat was mesmerised by wayang kulit (traditional shadow puppetry) when he was a child. His grandfather, a well-known wayang puppeteer, taught more than carving rawhide puppets as he introduced Sobrat to a world of Hindu epics: the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Sobrat subsequently joined the Pita Maha group and became one of the first Balinese painters to adapt Western aesthetics into his paintings. He studied under German artist Walter Spies (1895-1942) and Dutch painter Johan Rudolf Bonnet (1895-1978). Spies' legendary style of magical-realism and mastery of light captured Sobrat's imagination, and later from Bonnet, Sobrat honed his techniques of portraiture. Subsequently,1. Vickers, Adrian, Balinese Art: Paintings and Drawings of Bali 1800-2010, Tuttle Publishing, Singapore, 2012, pp.118-119, 182....