WD2983

Probably by Major J.M. Johnson

British Resident’s house, Java. c.1815.

Water-colour; 34 by 49.4 cm.

Watermark: ‘Iping 1804’

Note: The water-colour depicts a collection of ill-constructed houses and huts surrounded by a low white railing fence. The Union Jack is seen flying from a flag-staff beside the main building on the far left, indicating that it is the house of a British military commandant or civilian Resident. It is possible that it is the rest house of the British Resident at Surakarta which was situated at Sello (Sela) on an elevated ridge between Gunung Merbabu and Gunung Merapi, some 45 kilometres from Surakarta (Solo). Its occupant was Raffles's 'very particular friend', Major Jeremiah Martin Johnson of the 21st Bengal Native Infantry, who took up his appointment as British Resident at the court of Surakarta in December 1813. His main claim to fame was his discovery of the temple ruins of Suku, east of Surakarta, which Raffles later described and illustrated in his ‘The History of’ ‘Java’ (London, 1817). John Crawfurd also reproduced in his ‘History’ ‘of the Indian Archipelago’ (Edinburgh, 1820) an engraving of one of the Suku reliefs based on a drawing by Johnson, indicating that the latter laid some pretensions to being an artist. If the identification of the present drawing is correct then it seems reasonable to suppose that it is also by him.