Two views of Batavia

Pencil and watercolour heightened with white on paper

One signed, dated and inscribed ‘MARTHE 1862 BATAVIA’ (lower left), the other signed and dated ‘H. MARTHE 1860’ (lower right).

A fine and evocative pair of mid-19th-century topographical watercolours depicting scenes in Batavia (present-day Jakarta).

The earlier sheet (1860) shows a broad, open grassy padang bordered by a continuous row of low colonial houses with red-tiled roofs. A prominent building near the centre features a distinctive Chinese-style curved roof, reflecting the architectural mix characteristic of the city. In the foreground a woman in blue, accompanied by a small child and a dog, stands near a seated local man, while further figures, cattle, pigs and chickens populate the field.

The later sheet (1862) presents a lively canal view, almost certainly the Molenvliet or a comparable waterway in Weltevreden. Figures bathe and wash clothes at the water’s edge; a canoe is poled along the canal; pedestrians, horsemen and carriages move along the embankment; and a substantial house with a deep veranda anchors the right-hand side.

Marthe is a European artist active in the Dutch East Indies during the 1860s. These carefully observed drawings rank among the scarce surviving works attributable to him and offer an intimate glimpse of daily life in Batavia.

Literature

L. Haks & G. Maris, Lexicon of Foreign Artists who Visualized Indonesia (1600–1950), p. 178.

Early watercolours of Batavia are exceptionally rare on the market.

Christie's South Kensington, 10 November 1988, lots 137 and 138 (anonymous sale); by repute the collection of a woman justice of the Indonesian Supreme Court in Jakarta; Christie's London, Exploration and Travel, 26–27 September 2007, lot 484 (£6,250 hammer), where acquired by Geoffrey Allan Edwards (1947-2019), Jakarta; thence by descent.

Excellent.

Old Master Prints
Antique maps of Southeast Asia