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

Support The canvas has been lined. All tacking edges have been removed. Cusping is clearly visible at the top and on the right.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends up to the current edges of the support. The first, light grey layer consists of fine white and tiny black pigment particles and very few minuscule earth particles, and is remarkably medium-rich at the top. The second ground is a warm beige to orange and contains white pigment particles varying in size, some orange, yellow and brown pigment particles, and some charcoal black particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared reflectography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the current edges of the support. A first lay-in was done in translucent brown paint. The composition was then worked up from the back to the front, using reserves for the figures, the parasol and the tree. The ships were added over the background. The leaves, branches and oranges extend over the sky and seem to have been executed in two phases: first the light blueish-green foliage and the oranges, followed by, partly overlapping, more oranges and branches and leaves in a darker, more brownish green. The dense foliage and the figures were applied wet in wet in opaque paints. Infrared reflectography revealed remnants of two putti in the upper right corner of the sky strewing flowers over the ships from a basket. Cross-sections show that the putti, basket and flowers were applied on top of the first layer of the sky and were at some point partly removed and in other areas overpainted.
Willem de Ridder, Anna Krekeler, 2022

Fair. The paint surface is abraded throughout. The plants at lower right have a greyish discolouration, the darker leaves of the orange tree are turning a brownish grey.

…; ? on loan to the museum from Mr Verbeek, 1808;¹¹E.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;²²According 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;³³J. 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;⁴⁴G.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;⁵⁵Copy 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;⁶⁶Copy RKD.…; collection Kirkman Daniel Hodgson (1814-1879), Ashgrove, Sevenoaks, Kent;⁷⁷Note 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;⁸⁸A. 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 1908⁹⁹Verslagen omtrent ’s Rijks verzamelingen van geschiedenis en kunst 1907 (annual report of the Rijksmuseum), p. 21.

ObjectNumber: SK-A-2350

A Dutch couple accompanied by a native Indonesian holding a pajong above their heads are standing under an orange tree by the roads of Batavia (present-day Jakarta). The man is pointing his cane at the fleet about to set sail for Europe, and in the background is the city itself. This painting was probably already in the Nationale Konst-Gallery in 1808,¹⁵¹⁵See Provenance. but it then disappeared to England. It was thought to be a depiction of Jan Pietersz Coen, who founded Batavia and served two terms as governor-general of the Dutch East Indies between 1618 and 1629.¹⁶¹⁶E.W. Moes and E. van Biema, De Nationale Konst-Gallery en het Koninklijk Museum, Amsterdam 1909, p. 128. It was later renamed as a portrait of Pieter Both, the first to hold this post.¹⁷¹⁷See Provenance. Both identifications are wrong, but it is not entirely clear who these people actually are.

There are several ships in the roads with their names written on the stern. On the far left are the Salamander and the Rotterdam, and in the right foreground are the Prins Hendrik, Banda and Sûtveen (Zutphen). With the exception of the Rotterdam all these vessels (together with the Leeuwarden and Middelburg) belonged to the fleet that sailed from Batavia on 1 December 1640.¹⁸¹⁸J.R. Bruijn, F.S. Gaastra and I. Schöffer (eds.), Dutch Asiatic Shipping in the 17th and 18th Centuries, III, The Hague 1979, p. 44. This led Hofstede de Groot to conclude that the man is Commander Barent Pietersz Grootenbroek of Hoorn,¹⁹¹⁹C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, II, Esslingen/Paris 1908, pp. 31-32. accompanied by his wife, Aeltjen Jans of Bremen, a widow whom he married in Batavia in April 1634.²⁰²⁰W. Wijnaendts van Resandt, De gezaghebbers der Oost-Indische Compagnie op hare Buiten-Comptoiren in Azië, Amsterdam 1944, pp. 290-91. However, that proposition is problematic, because Grootenbroek died on the return voyage. It has been suggested that it could be a posthumous portrait, but in 1955 Van Luttervelt came up with another idea that has not been contested, and that is that Grootenbroek’s successor Jacob Mathieusen is shown here.²¹²¹Mathieusen (or Mahieuwsen, Mahieusen or Martensen) is first mentioned in R. van Luttervelt, ‘Een nieuwe aanwinst voor de Historische Afdeling van het Rijksmuseum: Een schilderij van J.B. Weenix’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 3 (1955), pp. 9-16, esp. p. 15, note 3. For his substitution for Grootenbroek see P. van Dam, Beschryvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie, ed. F.W. Stapel, I.2, The Hague 1929, p. 317. However, this identification also raises questions. Mathieusen only took over command of the fleet after the Cape of Good Hope, so his presentation here as the ranking officer in Batavia would have been decidedly arrogant and premature. And why, come to that, is he depicted with his wife?²²²²Mathieusen’s own report to the Dutch East India Company (VOC) provides no relevant information; ‘Rapport van Jacob Mahieusen over zijne reis met de retourvloot, 1641 (Archief van Hilten)’, Bijdragen en Mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap 3 (1880), pp. 324-51.

The view of Batavia is related to the one in an engraving of 1652 after a design from the studio of Johannes Vingboons.²³²³Aldus verthoont Hem ’t Casteel Ende Stadt Batavia Geleegen op ’t Eylant Iava Maior in’t Coninckryck van Iaccatra, Julius Mülheuser (or Milheuser) after I. (Johannes or Justus) Vingboons, published by Rombout van der Hoeyen. See F.C. Wieder, Monumenta Cartographica: Reproductions of Unique and Rare Maps, Plans and Views in the Actual Size of the Originals: Accompanied by Cartographical Monographs, I, The Hague 1925, p. 23; F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca. 1450-1700, XXXVII, Roosendaal 1991, p. 66; B. Brommer, Historische plattegronden van Nederlandse steden, IV: Batavia, Alphen aan den Rijn 1992, BAT P07. Vingboons’s design may in its turn have been based on a drawing of 1650 done from life by Johan Nessel, NATH, VEL 1180; illustrated in Atlas of Mutual Heritage, Batavia, no. 262. It can be assumed that the artist of the Rijksmuseum painting worked from this or a similar print. The figures’ attire is typically Dutch and dates from around 1650, in other words almost a decade after the fleet set sail for home.²⁴²⁴The lack of lace could indicate that the couple were in mourning; personal communication, Marieke de Winkel. This is indicated by the square toes of the man’s shoes, his hat and small collar, and the widow’s peak cap, neckerchief and bodice. Their accessories lend an exotic touch to the costume: his rattan cane, the ropes of pearls around her neck, wrists and even the bun of her hair, the feather fan and the amber pendant hanging from her belt. Their native escort carrying the pajong and wearing Dutch dress was a customary sign of status in Batavia. It was probably a fairly widespread practice, despite the authorities’ efforts to restrict it to the governing elite.²⁵²⁵Several attempts were made to curb the use of pajong carriers, by Governor-General Cornelis van der Lijn in 1647 among others, but they do not seem to have been very successful. See F. de Haan, Oud Batavia: Gedenkboek uitgegeven door het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen naar aanleiding van het driehonderdjarig bestaan der stad in 1919, II, Batavia 1922, pp. 182-83. Another pajong escort can be seen in View of Batavia by Andries Beeckman, SK-A-19.

Erlend de Groot, 2022

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, IX, London 1842, p. 664, no. 49 (as Aelbert Cuyp); 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 (as Aelbert Cuyp); C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, II, Esslingen/Paris 1908, pp. 31-32, no. 81 (as Aelbert Cuyp, Porträt des Herrn Barent Pietersz, gen. Grootebroeck und seiner Frau); F. de Haan, Oud Batavia: Gedenkboek uitgegeven door het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen naar aanleiding van het driehonderdjarig bestaan der stad in 1919, I , Batavia 1922, no. L4 (as Aelbert Cuyp); A. Chong, Aelbert Cuyp and the Meaning of Landscape, diss. New York University 1992, pp. 487-88, no. C118 (as not by Aelbert Cuyp, A Couple near a Harbor); K. Zandvliet (ed.), The Dutch Encounter with Asia 1600-1950, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2002-03, pp. 181-83 (as Aelbert Cuyp)

1934, p. 77, no. 746a (as Aelbert Cuyp); 1960, p. 80, no. 748 A1 (as Aelbert Cuyp); 1976, p. 184, no. A 2350 (as Aelbert Cuyp)

Erlend de Groot, 2022, 'circle of Aelbert Cuyp, Portrait of a Senior Merchant of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia, c. 1650 - c. 1655', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.7728