In writing the history of modern Indonesian art, landscape paintings that grew and developed during the colonial period are known as the beautiful Indie or Mooi Indies. This term is used to refer to the paintings of European painters who came to Indonesia gradually since the 18th century.. They paint natural beauty, exoticism of Eastern people, culture, traditional architecture, fruits, and more. At first, the term Mooi Indie was just an ordinary term until later this term was used critically by Indonesian nationalist painters in 1939. The painter was named S. Sudjojono. He later became known as the Father of Modern Indonesian Painting. For art historians, Sudjojono’s contribution not only revitalized meaning and stigmatized the Mooi Indie ideology.My presentation will examine the problems in Indonesian art historiography by using the term of Mooi Indie as a case study.