Coloured Engraving by Johannes Nieuhoff of a Mardijker Family, Batavia, Dutch East Indies

This coloured engraving by Johannes Nieuhoff, published in 1732, shows a Mardijker family in Batavia, the Dutch East Indies. The engraving is one of a series produced for a book of several volumes called  Voyages and Travels to the East Indies, published by Nieuhoff mostly for the Dutch market.

Mardijkers were former slaves, or descendants of former slaves, from Portuguese-occupied regions of India and Bengal. (The term Mardijker is believed to be a corruption of the Malay merdeka or ‘freedom’.)

Mardijkers in Batavia were of Indian descent and lived throughout the city (unlike many other ethnic or social groups who were ascribed designated neighbourhoods), especially after the 1641 Dutch conquest of Malacca on the Malay Peninsula, when Portuguese speakers in the city were taken captive and many ultimately ended up in Batavia.

Generally they spoke Portuguese or at least a version of it (Mardijker creole) and nominally were Catholic. Apparently they often wore blue-and-white striped clothing as shown in this engraving – or at least they were associated with such clothing on account of their former-slave status.

The Mardijker group pictured in Nieuhoff’s engraving was modelled from a watercolour by the Dutch artist Andries Beeckman. Beeckman was a VOC soldier and artist. He travelled to the Dutch East Indies in the 1650s including Batavia.

The engraving has been reproduced many times in books including in Voskuil-Groenewegen (1998).

The engraving is unmounted and unframed, and in fine condition.