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Rijksmuseum Second Floor Gallery 10: Dutch Colonial Art
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| "Arms of the Dutch East India Company & Arms of the Town of Batavia" - oil on panel painting by Jeronimus Becx (1651). |
These here are artwork from the second floor galleries.
These are the photos taken of the artwork at the museum; for presentation purposes and due to photography angle, many of these have been cropped and edited to compensate for low lighting. It is better to visit the museum as nothing beats seeing the originals.
This blog comes in several pages, this is page eleven of eleven of the second floor galleries and displays artwork related to or of the Dutch colonial empire. Click below to navigate to other sections:
< Go to 2nd Flr 09 | Go To 2nd Flr Main | Go to Gr. Flr >
For better navigation and orientation of the Rijksmuseum, below is the Second Floor layout plan:
Below are the artwork, for an enlarged view click on the respective photo; most of these works did not have any attribution to the artists who made them. Enjoy!
In the 17th century, Europeans were enthralled by the original inhabitants of South America. Their (reputed) cannibalism spoke to the imagination. This painting was in the possession of the Dutch West India Company in Amsterdam. Much of the scene is fantasized and says more about the Western perspective of the New World than the actual life of the Tupinambá people.
- oil on panel painting (c.1630).
Close up view of left panel - oil on panel painting (c.1630).
Close up view of centre panel - oil on panel painting (c.1630).
Close up view of right panel - oil on panel painting (c.1630).
The ‘Castle’ of Batavia, in the right background, was the VOC’s power base in Asia. A variety of figures populate the foreground: Chinese and Javanese merchants, a European man with his Asian wife, and freed slaves (mardijkers), recognizable by their striped clothing.
- oil on canvas painting by Andries Beeckman (1661).
This scene is taken from the Heroides by the Roman poet Ovid. When Cydippe went to make an offering at the temple of Diana, Acontius, who was secretly in love with her, threw an apple inside with the following words written on it: ‘I swear by the sanctuary of Diana that I will marry Acontius.’ Cydippe read the words aloud, thus turning them into a solemn vow..
- oil on canvas painting by Paulus Bor (c.1646-1655).
- wood, lacquer, gold & silver foil, crystal, silver, copper ;made in Japan for François Caron (c.1635-1645).
The figure standing on the left is a Dutch East India Company (VOC) merchant, probably Jakob Martensen, beside his wife. Behind them, a slave is holding a parasol, a pajong, over their head. 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 is pointing to the ships, indicating his involvement.
- oil on canvas painting by Aelbert Cuyp (c.1640-1660).
After returning from Brazil in 1667 the Dutch governor Johan Maurits commissioned eight tapestries to adorn the walls of the Mauritshuis. Eckhout based his designs for them on drawings he had made in Dutch Brazil. In 1678 Johan Maurits presented the cartoons to the French king Louis XIV. The tapestry series was popular at European courts and woven many times to meet the demand.
- wool and silk tapestry from Les Anciennes Indies (The Old Indies) series by Albert Eckhout (c.1692-1723).
- oil on canvas painting by Albert Eckhout (c.1640).
The Trip family – powerful international arms dealers – owned this cannon foundry in southern Sweden. It was a perfect location: iron ore was mined there, and there was ample waterpower, inexpensive labour and fuel (wood). The family built what is known as the Trippenhuis on the Kloveniersburgwal in Amsterdam. The Rijksmuseum was accommodated in this grand residence in the 19th century.
- oil on canvas painting by Allaert van Everdingen (c.1650-1675).
This silver ewer was either made in Spain or in Mexico, in the second half of the sixteenth century. It was part of the booty captured by Piet Heyn when he took the Spanish treasure fleet in 1628. An inscription was subsequently added into the base: 'This ewer comes from the Silver Fleet captured by the Lord Lieutenant Admiral Pieter Pieters Heyn on 6 Sept. 1618'. The date 1618 is a mistake; it should have been 1628.
- Spanish silverware captured by Piet Heyn (c.1550-1600).
Piet Heyn became famous for his conquest of the Spanish ‘Silver Fleet’ in 1628. The Spanish ships were laden with Mexican silver. The sale of the spoils yielded an astronomical fifteen million guilders. It was a painful blow for Spain, particularly because the Netherlands used the money to wage war against the Spanish. This dish was fashioned from the seized silver.
- silverware made from silver captured by Piet Heyn (c.1684-1687).
A laughing satyr, symbol of sensuality, leans towards a nymph, gently stroking her face. Her playful response to his gesture is nothing short of bold for a 17th-century Dutch painting. Gerard van Honthorst zoomed in on the figures from below suggesting that the picture was intended to be a mantelpiece. His light-hearted early depiction was widely imitated in his native Utrecht.
- oil on canvas painting by Gerard van Honthorst (1623).
Smeerenburg on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen was a settlement of Dutch whalers. The painter was never there, but constructed a hotchpotch of drawn and painted motifs that he knew. On the beach whale blubber is being carved into small pieces and boiled. The rendered fat was poured into wooden trays, purified, and the resulting oil stored in barrels. The men’s barracks can be seen in the right background.
- oil on canvas painting by Cornelis de Man (1639).
Thomas Hees served as a diplomat in Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. Among other duties, he negotiated the purchase of the freedom of Dutch slaves and protested against the privateering of Dutch ships. Hees had himself portrayed in a relaxed pose, smoking, and surrounded by the treasures he had acquired in North Africa. An inscription on the back of this painting gives his servant’s name and age: ‘Thomas the negro,17 years old.’
- oil on canvas painting by Michiel van Musscher (1687).
Startled by the sudden appearance of the satyrs at the left, the nude nymphs flee towards the old maidservant, who is minding their clothes, at the right. The bow and the quiver indicate that these nymphs are from the retinue of Diana, goddess of the hunt.
- Nanban lacquerware from Japan (1687).
Startled by the sudden appearance of the satyrs at the left, the nude nymphs flee towards the old maidservant, who is minding their clothes, at the right. The bow and the quiver indicate that these nymphs are from the retinue of Diana, goddess of the hunt.
- oil on copper painting by Cornelis van Poelenburgh (after 1627).
Although God forbade Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’, they did so anyway. As punishment, they were driven out of Paradise by an angel with a flaming sword. They fled into the barren mountain landscape. Van Poelenburch, after returning to the Netherlands from Italy, produced this type of highly refined, painstakingly painted landscape throughout the rest of his career.
- oil on panel painting by Cornelis van Poelenburgh (after 1646).
This painting and the Brazilian landscape on view next to it are part of a series of landscapes that Frans Post painted on his return to the Netherlands from Brazil in 1644. The foreground figure carrying a basket on her head recurs regularly in his work.
- oil on panel painting by Frans Janszoon Post (after 1670-1680).
The province of Pernambuco, which the Dutch captured from the Portuguese, was home to many different ethnic groups. In the foreground is an Indian family; further back a Dutch couple strolls towards the verandah; and standing at the porch railing are a veiled Portuguese woman and a slave with a basket on his head.
- oil on panel painting by Frans Janszoon Post (after 1675-1680).
Frans Post travelled to Brazil in 1637 as part of the entourage of Governor Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen. Once there, he made paintings and drawings of the exotic landscape. On the artist’s return to the Dutch Republic in 1644, he made romanticized ‘Brazilian’ landscapes, like this little panel.
- oil on panel painting by Frans Janszoon Post (after 1670-1680).
This painting is known as ‘The House of a Dutch Colonist in Brazil’; it is more likely, however, that it represents a Franciscan monastery or church building. Among the six figures on the grounds is a Dutch couple. The building does not have any Dutch features, but is constructed according to Portuguese-Brazilian architectural traditions.
- oil on panel painting by Frans Janszoon Post (after 1675-1680).
This canvas was commissioned by Pieter Sterthemius, director of the Hooghly trading post in Dutch Bengal. The scene bustles with activity. Dutch East Indiamen navigate the Ganges River, the director of the trading post visits an Indian dignitary, and at the upper right an act of religious self-castigation is taking place: a man is suspended from a hook in his ribs and spun around a pole.
- oil on canvas painting by Hendrik van Schuylenburgh (1665).
Jan Valckenburgh, portrayed in full regalia wearing armour and holding a commander’s baton, was twice director-general of Elmina on the African Gold Coast. His black houseboy wears a gold medal with a view of Fort Elmina, which is also depicted in the background. Valckenburgh received the medal from the Dutch West India Company for services rendered. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Netherlands shipped about 600.000 slaves to the Americas, 7% of the total number.
- oil on canvas painting by Daniel Vertangen (c.1660).
- oil on canvas painting by Daniel Vertangen (c.1660).
In 1651–1652 the Dutch ambassador Joan Cunaeus and his secretary, Cornelis Speelman, travelled to Isfahan in Persia to stimulate trade in horses and silk. Speelman described the journey, lavish receptions and visits to ancient archeological sites. The two gentlemen are here probably being escorted by the Sultan of Bandar Abbas. Cunaeus wears a silk cloak, a gift from the shah.
- oil on canvas painting by Jan Baptist Weenix (c.1653-1659).
Amid the bathing women, the infant Moses can just be seen, with some effort, being lifted from the rush basket in which he washed ashore. Wtenbrock makes it clear that this biblical story takes place in Egypt: in the foreground is a statue of a sphinx with the head of a dog, and in the background an overgrown obelisk.
- oil on canvas painting by Moyses van Wtenbrouck (c.1625-1627).
This blog comes in several pages, this is page eleven of eleven of the second floor galleries and displays artwork related to or of the Dutch colonial empire. Click below to navigate to other sections:
< Go to 2nd Flr 09 | Go To 2nd Flr Main | Go to Gr. Flr >
Museumstraat 1 1071 XX Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Telephone: +31 (0) 20 6747 000 | Email:
Hours: Friday to Wednesday - 9:00am to 5:00pm
Admission price: €17.50 for adults; click here for more admission pricing.
Webpage: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/ | Email: info@rijksmuseum.nl
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rijksmuseum/
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You are at - Jotaro's Blog / Footsteps / Europe 2016 - Art Gallery / Rijksmuseum / 2nd Flr Galleries / 2F-10 | Go to: 2F-01 / 2F-02 / 2F-03 / 2F-04 / 2F-05 / 2F-06 / 2F-07.1 / 2F-07.2 / 2F-08 / 2F-09 / Gr Flr. Galleries / 1st Flr. Galleries
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