View of the Island and the City of Batavia Belonging to the Dutch, for the India Company, Johannes van Ryne, 1754

This hand-colored engraving of the dutch colonial capital of batavia (present-day jakarta) was created by jan van ryne in 1754. Van ryne was born in the netherlands, but spent most of his working life in london, where he specialized in producing engravings of scenes from the british and dutch colonies. Located at the mouth of the ciliwung river, jakarta was the site of a settlement and port possibly going back as far as the fifth century a. D. In 1619, the dutch captured and razed the existing city of jayakerta (meaning “glorious fortress” in sundanese) and built the walled township of batavia, which became the capital of the dutch east indies. The engraving is from the collections of the kitlv/royal netherlands institute of southeast asian and caribbean studies in leiden. Note: the engraving is a mirror image. Cityscapes; ports; ships. Date: 1754. Place of creation: Jakarta. Dimensions: Copperplate engraving, colored; 24 x 38.5 cm. Medium: photograph, prints. Collection: Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and the Caribbean Studies KITLV. View of the Island and the City of Batavia Belonging to the Dutch, for the India Company WDL2900