...; anonymous sale, Groningen (Klinkhamer), 21 February 2017, no. 253, the entire photo album, € 50, to a private collector; by whom, this photo only, donated to the museum, 2025 (inv. no. NG-2025-57).

Object number: NG-2025-57

Credit line: Gift of J. ter Brugge, Vlaardingen

A carte-de-visite is a small photograph glued onto a piece of cardboard. Cartes-de-visite were commonly made to be handed to someone as a means to connect. In this case, the mounted photo is of a man gazing confidently at the camera. The man sits with his legs wide apart on a chair in front of a hanging canvas, with his bare feet firmly planted on the ground. His powerful pose is reminiscent of Asian monarchs’ portraits. He wears a uniform jacket of Western origin over a white shirt and a sarong and the hilt of a kris can be discerned behind his right shoulder.

Three oval stamps on the reverse of the carte-de-visite possibly reveal more about the sitter’s identity. Two were made with the same stamp bearing the text ‘Sastrohadiredjo, geb: Blitar’. The third, larger stamp in the centre reads ‘Tan Tok Ping, Probolinggo’. Blitar and Probollingo are towns in East Java, respectively in the south and on the northern coast. Sastrohadiredjo, according to newspaper and government almanac entries, was a Javanese man employed with the administration of the Dutch East Indies in and around Blitar between 1896 up until his death in 1931. He is possibly the person in the photo, either born (geb[oren]) or stationed in this area (geb[ied]). Sastrohadiredjo’s obituary confirms that he began his career around 1896. Perhaps at this time he had the present carte-de-visite made, to be distributed in his network.

The administration in the Dutch East Indies was organized hierarchically, with the governor at the top. Beneath the governor was the so-called resident, charged with the administration of one specific region. Next in line was the regent, who as the local head exercised authority under the resident’s supervision. Below this level, the colonial administration entailed various functions, including the wedono (district head), desahoofd (village head) and jaksa (public prosecutor). The men holding the two higher positions were of European descent, and in most cases Dutch; the others were Indonesian. During his career, Sastrohadiredjo fulfilled a number of these positions: from 1903, assistant wedono; from 1912, jaksa; from 1914, deputy head jaksa; and from after 1916 to 1931, wedono in a number of places in East Java. Nothing is known about other aspects of Sastrohadiredjo’s life.

The name Tan Tok Ping, presumably that of the photographer, appears only a few times in local newspapers. In 1893, the Dutch government granted a Chinese merchant with this name a permit to transport coffee and salt in Probolinggo. That same year, he won the bronze medal for his arak (a spirit) at the Pasaroeansche Tentoonstelling in Pasuruan, in the category ‘European and Chinese industry’. Three years later, he was declared bankrupt as a merchant in Probolinggo. This Tan Tok Ping, though involved in the mercantile trade, is nowhere mentioned in connection with photographic activity. According to Liesbeth Ouwehand, a specialist in the historical photography of Southeast Asia, many Chinese merchants in the Dutch East Indies sidelined as photographers after 1890. Perhaps Tan Tok Ping pursued photography as a side gig during his regular work or as a new source of income when faced with bankruptcy. This theory is tenably supported by the relative simplicity of the carte-de-visite itself, with the photographer’s name merely stamped – not pre-printed – and what in the photograph appears to be a makeshift studio.

Maria Holtrop, 2025
This entry was first published as a ‘Recent Acquisition’ in The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 74 (2025) no. 4, pp. 396-397 (no. 10)

Literature
Liesbeth Ouwehand, ‘Chinese Photographers and their Clientele in the Netherlands Indies, 1890-1940’, Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia 18 (2017), no. 2, article 3

Maria Holtrop, 2025, 'possibly Tan Tok Ping, Portrait of a Javanese Man, Oost-Java, c. 1880 - c. 1900', in Acquisitions Published in the Rijksmuseum Bulletin, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200906993