VOC Senior Merchant with his Wife and an Enslaved Servant

• VOC Senior Merchant with his Wife and an Enslaved Servant
• Portrait of a Senior Merchant of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia

Portrait of a Senior Merchant of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia

SK-A-2350

inscription, background centre, on the city wall: ‘BAtavia Civitas’

The figure standing on the left is a Dutch East India Company (VOC) merchant, probably Jakob Martensen, beside his wife. Behind them is an enslaved man holding a parasol, a pajong, over their heads. This was a status symbol in Javanese culture. Batavia Castle is visible in the background. To the right, the Company fleet rides at anchor, ready to return to the Netherlands. The merchant points to the ships with his stick, indicating his involvement.

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• painter: circle of Aelbert Cuyp
• painter: Aelbert Cuyp [rejected]

c. 1650 - c. 1655

olieverf op doek

• height 137.3 cm x width 206.5 cm x thickness 4.2 cm
• depth 5 cm

purchase 1908-01

Public domain

…; ? on loan to the museum from Mr Verbeek, 1808;{E.W. Moes and E. van Biema, _De Nationale Konst-Gallery en het Koninklijk Museum_, Amsterdam 1909, p. 128. List of paintings that had not been transferred from The Hague to Amsterdam, 14 September 1808: `no. 480 _De Gouverneur Coen en vrouw, eerst Gouverneur van Batavia, Batavia in ´t verschiet_, door A.A. Cuyp; behoord aan dHr Verbeek´.}…; purchased in Rotterdam by the dealer C.J. Nieuwenhuis (1799-1883), Amsterdam and London, 1839;{According to J. Smith, _A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters_, IX, London 1842, p. 664, no. 49, `for a very insignificant sum´.} from whom, £500, to John Rushout (1770-1859), 2nd Baron Northwick, Thirlestane House, Cheltenham, 1839;{J. Smith, _A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters_, IX, London 1842, p. 664, no. 49.} recorded at Thirlestane House, 1854-55;{G.F. Waagen, _Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated MSS., &c. &c.,_, III, London 1854, p. 208: `A gentleman pointing with his stick to a fleet; his wife and man-servant with a parasol´. Coll. cat. Thirlestane House 1855, no. 128, as _Pierre Both, first governor of Batavia_.} sale, John Rushout, sold on the premises (Phillips), 26 July 1859 _sqq._, no. 1590, £920, to the dealer Agnew;{Copy RKD.}…; sale, John Hargreaves (†, Accrington and Whalley Abbey, Lancashire, and Hall Barn Park, Buckinghamshire), London (Christie´s), 5 June 1873 _sqq._, no. 184, £231, to the dealer Agnew;{Copy RKD.}…; collection Kirkman Daniel Hodgson (1814-1879), Ashgrove, Sevenoaks, Kent;{Note RMA.} his son, Robert Kirkman Hodgson (1850-1924), Gavelacre, Hampshire; his sale, London (Christie´s), 23 February 1907, no. 64, £945, to the dealer Dowdeswell;{A. Chong, _Aelbert Cuyp and the Meaning of Landscape_, diss. New York University 1992, p. 487.}…; the dealer Frederik Muller, Amsterdam, 1907; from whom, fl. 18,000, to the museum, with the support of E. Deen, The Hague, January 1908{_Verslagen omtrent ´s Rijks verzamelingen van geschiedenis en kunst_ 1907 (annual report of the Rijksmuseum), p. 21.}

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

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/2002916