"Surapati and an Enslaved Female Servant with the Cnoll Family," Jacob Coeman, 1665.
Also known as "Pieter Cnoll, Cornelia van Nijenroode, Their Daughters, and Two Enslaved Servants," this group portrait is Coeman's most famous and really only noted work. A Dutch portraitist, he was born about 1632 and migrated to the Dutch East Indies (aka Indonesia) and painted portraits of the colonists there. He passed away there in 1676.
The Cnolls were wealthy merchants, and intriguingly, Cornelia was half-Japanese, not discernable in this portrait. (Her parents were a Dutch merchant and his Japanese concubine.) The two girls depicted here died young.
The man with the flag is thought to be Untung Surapati (c. 1660-1706), an Indonesian patriot who had been enslaved but escaped and became a leader of rebellions against the Dutch occupiers of his land. His career is fascinating and too much to recount here, except to note that he is now regarded as a national hero of Indonesia. Go look him up.
This painting is now often used in discussions of slavery and colonialism in art; a valuable conversation to have.
From the RIjksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Happy Easter!
Noli Me Tangere
I know that my Redeemer liveth
Vivaldi: Gloria/Nisi Dominus/4 Cantatas etc.
