WD2996

Government House, Buitenzorg, Java, c.1812.

Probably by a Dutch artist.

Water-colour; 40.6 by 59.3 cm.

Note: This is perhaps the most historically important of the Java drawings in the collection since it depicts the front of Government House at Buitenzorg (Bogor) much as it was at the time of the British conquest of the island, and before the extensive series of renovations were carried out by Raffles after 1812. So little is known about the early architecture of this famous building, or rather complex of buildings, that this and the following three drawings may be said to add an entirely new dimension to the subject. Fortunately, too, there has recently come to light in the National Library of Scotland a sketch of the ground-plan of the building made in 1811 by Captain Thomas Taylor, Military Secretary to the Governor-General, Lord Minto. This shows that at the rear there was a number of small connecting buildings, described as offices, running in a sort of semi-circle from the back of the two wings, the space between forming a courtyard fronted by a garden. From the present drawing it might appear that Government House was a unified structure but in fact its main elements, comprising a large circular-fronted building and two different-sized wings, were connected only by a covered passage-way with arches opening on the front. Considerable repairs to the central building were effected by Governor-General H.W. Daendels between 1808 and is 1810, but due to the poor quality timber Raffles was obliged to undertake further repairs. He also remodelled the red-tiled roofs of the two wings to conform with the classical style of the central building. Despite all efforts to make the building habitable it was in a poor state when the Dutch returned to the island in 1816. The present water-colour is probably the work of J. Flikkenschild or P.C. Karsseboom, two Dutch draughtsmen who were sent to Buitenzorg during 1811 on Raffles's orders. Both remained in the vicinity for several months and sketched, among other things, local antiquities such as the Artja Domas and Batu Tulis. The water-colour depicts Gunung Gede in the background and in the right-hand foreground a European woman and child, possibly Raffles's sister, Mary Ann Flint and her eldest son by her first marriage, Acheson Quintin Dick Thompson, who was about six years of age.