Jan Daniel Beynon – Portrait of Johanna Botter – 1856

Portrait of Johanna Botter. Oil on canvas painted by Jan Daniel Beynon. This portrait is part of a pair with that of her husband Henri Leyssius, painted in 1859 by D. Jan De Bruijn.

Jan Daniel Beynon (or Beijnon) was an Indo-European painter born in Batavia, Indonesia, on 20 May 1830. He was the son of Jacob Willem Beynon (1795-1874) and Johanna Petronella Hoogveld (1806-1887). The Beynon family, originally from Switzerland, fled to Frankfurt, Germany. The artist's great-grandfather, born in Frankfurt, moved to Amsterdam, later pursuing career opportunities in the East Indies in 1752. After careers in the service of the Dutch East India Company VOC (Dutch: Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) the family gathered substantial wealth. The Beynon's were the only family in Batavia to send one of their young men to Europe to study art. In 1848 he was sent to the Netherlands where he studied at the Koninklijke Academie in Amsterdam and was taught by famous 19th-century Dutch masters such as Cornelis Kruseman and Nicolaas Pieneman.

Beynon exhibited in Amsterdam and The Hague in 1852 and 1853. After his training and a stay of six years, the painter returned to Batavia in 1855, where he set up a studio in Molenvliet (Jalan Gajah Mada). Although not much is known of the painter's later life, he left behind an impressive body of work consisting of portraits, landscapes, still lifes and genre paintings. His works are a testament of his fine artistic skills, particularly his use of colour, light and surface reflections, techniques much employed by The Fijnschilders (literally "fine-painters") of the seventeenth century. Since his financial situation was secured, he did not have to sell his paintings and never really entered the art market. Few of his paintings are in public collections; most of the artist's work remains in the Beynon family collection. However, the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam owns three landscapes and four portraits by Beynon.

Jan Daniel Beynon died in Batavia on 29 July 1877, aged 47.

Johanna Frederica Abrahama Botter was born on December 22, 1826 in Tjikao-Krawang, Indonesia. She married Henri Jean Louis Leyssius (1819-1887) at the age of 16, on 11 January 1843 in Poerwakarta, Indonesia. They would have nine children.

Johanna Botter is represented sitting in an armchair against a curtained backdrop, wearing an elegant blue silk and lace dress and holding a fan. The gold bracelet and cameo highlight the sitter's social status. The Indonesian river landscape and lush vegetation visible beyond the curtain allude to her birthplace and homeland. The Botter-Heyl family coat of arms in the upper right corner completes the image. The portrait is signed and dated 1856.

Johanna Botter died only months after this portrait was painted, on January 6 1857 aboard the sailing ship "Minister Pahud" while en route to the Netherlands. She was only 30 years old.

D. Jan De Bruijn was a Dutch painter of portraits and genre scenes. He was born in Amsterdam on 31 August 1794 and died in Amersfoort, near Utrecht, on 11 November 1862. He had his studio in Antwerp.

Henri Jean Louis Leyssius was born in Utrecht on 13 December 1819 and died in Brussels on 27 May 1887. He was a financial controller for the Javanese government from 1838, administrator of the Parakantroes company in Krawang, the Temoeloes in Surakarta, and finally was the founder and chief administrator of the Deli-Batavia tobacco company. He married his first wife, Johanna Frederika Abrahama Botter, in Poerwakarta (Java) in 1843, who died while on a voyage to the Netherlands. They had 9 children. He remarried Joséphine Caroline Sophie Marguerite Gertrude Olijve, from Batavia five years later, in 1853. His father, Pieter Frederik Leyssius (1793-1846), was a municipal government official in Utrecht, elevated to the Dutch nobility by Royal Decree of 10 February 1842, whereby the title was passed down to his descendants.

The Deli-Batavia company he founded in 1875 was considered one of the four major tobacco producing companies of Sumatra dominating the region in the late 19th century. Its first estate was Gedong Djohore in Deli. The company quickly expanded to other plantations, such as Timbang Langkat in 1876, Tandem in 1880, Petani in 1882 and Tandem Hilir in 1883. The Amsterdam head office was located at Herengracht 286-290, building now housing the University of Amsterdam’s Institute of Art History and the Library of Art History

Sources: Stadsarchief Amsterdam; Zeeuws Veilinghuis; Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis; Werner Kraus: Chinese Influence on Early Modern Indonesian Art? Hou Qua: a Chinese Painter in 19th-century Java ; Nederlands Archief.

Note - Price includes both paintings, sold together.

Artist: Jan Daniel Beynon (1830-1877).
Signed and dated 1856 on the lower right.
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Condition: Very good condition. Recently relined and professionally restored.
Dimensions: 72 x 59.5 cm. / 28 ¼ x 23 ½ in.
Frame: 79 x 67.5 cm. / 39 x 32 ¾ in. Contemporary, classic style giltwood frame. Excellent condition.
Provenance: France.

Artist: D. Jan De Bruijn (1794-1862).
Signed and dated 1859 on the lower right.
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Condition: Very good. Recently relined and professionally restored.
Dimensions: 72,5 x 59.5 cm. / 28 ½ x 23 ½ in.
Frame: 80 x 67.5 cm. / 31 ½ x 26 ½ in. Contemporary, classic style giltwood frame. Excellent condition.
Provenance: France.