The Castle of Batavia

• View of Batavia
• The Castle of Batavia, seen from Kali Besar West
• The Castle of Batavia

SK-A-19

signature, bottom right, on the upturned boat (A and B ligated): ‘ABeeckman F’

These people would never have all been together at the same time! Beeckman was trying to give an overview of the different ethnic groups in Batavia. They include Japanese, Indians, ‘mardijkers’ – formerly enslaved people, recognizable by their striped clothing – and a Dutch-Eurasian couple and their enslaved servant with a pajong (sunshade). A Javanese woman sells fruit, a Chinese person is fishing and Moluccans play football with a rattan ball. This painting hung in the assembly room of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) headquarters in Amsterdam.

'Het kasteel Batavia', Verslagen en aanwinsten 1978-1979, Stichting cultuurgeschiedenis van de Nederlanders overzee, pag. 68-73.

painter: Andries Beeckman

c. 1662

olieverf op doek

height 108 cm x width 151.4 cm

purchase 1859

Public domain

From the artist, with one other painting, fl. 120, to the Amsterdam chamber of the Dutch East India Company, 1662;{NATH, VOC Archive, acc. no. 1.04.02, inv. no. 4583, _Samenvattende staten 1642-1678_, 30 April 1662. The second work is lost. It may have been intended for one of the other chambers of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), for example Zeeland, which possessed many similar paintings.} recorded in East India House, Hoogstraat, Amsterdam, 1663;{O. Dapper, _Historische beschryving der stadt Amsterdam_, Amsterdam 1663, p. 449: `In de zael daer de Bewinthebbers vergaderen, en van hunnen handel raadslagen, hangen te pronk Chineesche en Japonsche schilderyen. Daer hangt ook de groote stadt Batavien, met haer schrickelijk en onwinnelijk kasteel´.} recorded in East India House, 1771;{The painting can be seen hanging above the fireplace in the conference room in Simon Fokke´s 1771 _Stadholder Willem V Taking the Chair as the Senior Director of the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company, 1 June 1768_, Rijksmuseum, RP-T-00-1623.} ? removed from East India House, 1831;{East India House was used by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Colonies up until 1831 after the dissolution of the VOC in 1797. There is no documentary evidence that the canvas was removed when the ministry relocated, as assumed in E.H. Mattie and C. van Soestbergen, `Het Oost Indisch Huis te Amsterdam: Problemen bij de reconstructie van een historisch interieur´, _Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond_ 100 (2001), pp. 93-99, esp. p. 99, note 15. The painting and those surrounding it may have been transferred to the Department of Water Management, National Industry and Colonies in The Hague in 1831 (note RMA).}…; from W.J.M. Engelberts, fl. 50, to the museum, 1859{NHA, ARM, Kop., inv. 38, p. 206 (11 August 1859).}

• 'Het kasteel Batavia', Verslagen en aanwinsten 1978-1979, Stichting cultuurgeschiedenis van de Nederlanders overzee, pag. 68-73.
• Documentatiemap: aantekeningen R. van Luttervelt (voor 1963).
• Erlend de Groot, 'Uitheemse volkeren in de Nederlandse zeventiende-eeuwse kunst. Een eerste indruk', Desipientia 9/2 (2002), pp. 101 - 113
• L. Panhuysen, 'Ontziet uw vijanden niet, God is met ons', Historisch Nieuwsblad (2010) nr. 10, p. 38

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200108197