Batavia through the eyes of painter Brandes

Christina Schott, Contributor, Jakarta

How do a gecko's feet look? What makes him able to run up the walls, hang on the ceiling and even stick to glass?

Dutch Lutheran pastor Jan Brandes was obviously fascinated by these common household animals and became the first to paint their feet -- and everything else -- while watching them under the microscope in 1784.

Besides the flora and fauna of his surroundings, the churchman also documented the ethnic and topographic characters of daily life in colonial Batavia, his home at the end of the 18th century. He also painted scenes from his travels through Ceylon (today Sri Lanka) and South Africa.

The works of this amateur painter are among the "most original and revealing depictions of life in and around Dutch VOC establishments in Asia and Africa", Ronald de Leeuw, director of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, said, using the initials for the Dutch East Indies Company.

"Brandes' paintings and drawings depict not only the official, well-known side of colonialism, but offer a rare view into daily domestic life of a traveler in Asia".

In 1985, the Rijksmuseum was able to acquire the Jan Brandes collection at auction, after most of his watercolors, sketches and drawings had been left in private collections for almost two centuries. The museum's research team still hopes to eventually find more paintings of the cleric, perhaps gathering dust in an Indonesian household.

A selection of this historically important work is currently exhibited at Erasmus Huis. Beside pictures from the Batavia period, the exhibition also shows some watercolors from other places, especially series of an elephant hunt on Ceylon.

Brandes was born in Bodegraven in the Netherlands in 1743. When he was sent to become a minister in Batavia, he was 36 years old. His wife died of disease a year after their arrival, after giving birth to their son Jantje. The cleric then moved outside the unhealthy center of Batavia to an estate, now located at Jl. Gunung Sahari in Central Jakarta.

The cleric obviously had a sharp eye for detail, and his piercing gaze dominates his black-and-white self-portrait from 1785. He looks searching and, at the same time, knowing. The collarless white shirt is tied under his double-chin. Brandes had a big thinker's front and was almost bold. As the informative captions beside the pictures tell, this fact suited him due to the fashion of wearing wigs at official occasions.

The sketches of the Dutch often have a very private and documentary character. His drawings and paintings of birds, insects or plants seem like they were done for a schoolbook: Every detail is shown from several sides with hand-written descriptions.

His explanations of a Muslim prayer ceremony or the Tsingbing Festival in a Chinese temple, for example, have an almost cartoon-like character.

Other than religious ceremonies, Brandes was also interested in cultural and social traditions. From the harvest of betel nuts to the Javanese mask dance, he seemingly recorded everything what was strange from what he knew from the Netherlands.

The cleric was also the only painter of his time to portray his slaves as people with names. That does not mean that he treated them differently than others: When one of his slaves did not fulfill his wishes, the poor man or woman was punished or sold.

The paintings of the colonial life and scenes at home have an artistic quality. The work Jantje and Flora in an upstairs room shows a pale, yellow-haired boy with a book standing in a bright, airy living room. A female slave is working at a spinning-wheel in the background. The windows are barred, showing that Brandes -- just as other colonial masters -- hermetically sealed his house in an attempt to ward off disease. In the foreground, several birds add to the exotic atmosphere.

In Ladies' Tea Visit, two women in white robes are having tea, the host obviously of mixed race. Two female slaves serve them from both flanks. The painting is loaded with details, starting with the cook preparing food in the background to porcelain and a broom on a shelf.

While in the pictures of Brandes' home the colors blue and green often give a fresh atmosphere, the tea scene as well as the painting of a Dutch wedding ceremony, as well as the inside of the Lutheran Church, are done in brownish-red with a yellow touch.

The faces of the painter's subjects are never very expressive. His focus definitely was the whole constellation of what he was testifying: If there had already been photo cameras by that time, Jan Brandes definitely would have become an amateur photographer.

To really envelop oneself in the Dutch pastor's memories of colonial Batavia with its straight streets, horse-carts and slaves, the visitor actually has not only to force himself to forget about busy modern Jakarta but also about the office activities of Erasmus Huis, taking place right behind the black curtains acting as exhibition walls.

Whoever can manage this will take a colorful and mainly historically interesting journey back to the times when the VOC still ruled this part of the world.

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The World of Jan Brandes runs until May 8, 2004, at Erasmus Huis, Jl. Rasuna Said, Kav. S-3, Kuningan, South Jakarta. Tel: 021- 5241069 or www.erasmushuis.or.id