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Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC)
Between 1568 and 1648 the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic were at war with Spain. In 1621, a Twelve Years’ Truce ended without the need to extend it. Hostilities between the Republic and Spain resumed. During that period, international trade continued to flourish. The Dutch commercial companies at that time were the largest commercial private companies or multinationals around the globe, in particular the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC). It would spread all of its activities mainly in the direction of Asia. Rembrandt would paint several regents of the VOC, the Dutch abbreviation for the United East-India Company, including Abraham Wilmerdoncx and his wife.
The VOC brought wealth to Amsterdam, as well as new, exiting exotic sensations. One of them was an elephant. Let me, briefly, tell you the story. I you have listened to my podcasr ‘Amsterdam – City of Migrants’, RM24007, you’ll remember I touched upon the dark side ot the VOC too.
1602
The first sailing voyage of a Dutch ship was made by Cornelis de Houtman (1565-1599), a Dutch merchant and explorer. He arrived in the East Indies in 1595. Other Dutch merchants would follow in their aim to conquer the market for the import of pepper, tea, coffee, and spices from Asia. The prosperous growth of the sector was, however, threatened by the fierce competition between the Zeeland and Amsterdam so-called ‘pre-companies’ (voorcompanieën). To prevent Portugal from benefiting, leading counsellor of Holland, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, and Stadholder Prince Maurits forced the merchants of different regions to cooperate and merge their activities.
This resulted in the founding of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1602. The VOC is called the first limited liability company on the globe, having had its capital divided into shares. See (in Dutch) http://www.voc-kenniscentrum.nl/.
Against the background of my podcast ‘Amsterdam – City of Migrants’ (www.rembrandtsmoney.com, podcast RM24007), it is not surprising that the most important investors in the VOC were Amsterdam residents/merchants coming from the Southern Netherlands, such as Isaac le Maire (85,000 guilders) and the Van Os brothers (47,000 guilders). The total starting capital, from all parts of the Republic, was 6.5 million guilders. (Dieusaert (2023), 153ff.)
[Emblem carved above the enterance to Cape Town Castle, ca. 1680]
The VOC employed Henry Hudson, an Englishman, who discovered Manhattan in 1609. He found that the fur trade to Europe was a lucrative source of income. A first permanent settlement on Manhattan was founded in 1624 by a group of Protestant Walloon families. They were then followed by fellow countrymen and other families of German, Dutch, and British descent. At that time the area was called both New Belgium and New Netherlands.
In 1625, a Dutch ship of the West India Company (West Indische Compagnie, WIC) arrived at this location. The WIC wanted to protect the fur trade of this company in the Hudson Valley.
In 1626, Peter Minuit, a German, was appointed as the first governor of the colony. The settlement was named New Amsterdam. Minuit ‘bought’ Manhattan from the Indians for trinkets worth 60 guilders (some 1000 USD today). In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant became Director General of the New Netherlands. A wall was built to protect against the Indians in 1653. The adjacent street was called Wall Street (‘Walstraat’). In the run-up to the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1664, New Amsterdam was conquered by the English, who called the settlement New York, after the Duke of York.
In 1667, the Dutch Republic had refrained from reclaiming the area by the Peace of Breda; in exchange, they continued to occupy Surinam that year, as well as the Moluccan island of Run, with which the VOC acquired the nutmeg monopoly. As for New York City and the Dutch: the rest is history, see
https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/historical-timelines
[Peter Stuyvesant, attributed to Hendrick Couturier (in the past to Rembrandt, appr. 1660; wiki commons]
Virtually, the VOC acted as the eighth province of the Republic. It had – in the beginning – a 10 years’ monopoly, given by the Dutch States General. It included a high level of delegated naval authority by the Dutch state. In fact, and legally in these days, the VOC was a (mandated) sovereign actor, licensed to build their own little states (‘colonies’) within the state. For a digital historic database, see www.atlasofmutualheritage.nl.
As I said, the VOC brought wealth to Amsterdam, as well as new, exiting exotic sensations. These goods can often be seen on still-life paintings: for example, exotic weapons, herbs, spices, clothing, salt, porcelain vases, and shells.
Shri Lanka
Now I come the micro story: in 1633, stored between the pepper and the porcelain, a VOC ship carried a living elephant from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
She (it was a female) was shipped from Batavia, present day Jakarta.
The animal was originally in the possession of Stadholder Frederik Hendrik, but due to an improper traceable detour it could be seen in 1637 in Amsterdam under the name ‘Hansken’. For sources, see Roscam Abbing/Tuynman (2006); www.elephanthansken.com, and the referrences below.
As an aside: the VOC was colonial administrator over the coastal area of Sri Lanka for more than a century and a half – from the conquest of Galle in 1640 until the English takeover of the colony in 1796. At that time, Dutch law from that time was formally applied, in a territory in the South-east direction of the globe, over 8000 kilometers away from Holland!
About this periode, see Marleen van den Horst, ‘The Roman Dutch Law in Sri Lanka’ (Amsterdam: Free University Press, 1985). I think it is interesting to mention that at that time a ‘Native Estate Chamber’ (Inlandse Boedelkamer’) functioned: a board that managed the estate of deceased natives.
Much more extensively about the whole of Asia, see
https://web.archive.org/web/20071127102931/http://www.colonialvoyage.com/remainsDasia.html
[Hierarchy of courts for civil matters in the coastal territories of Sri Lanka under Dutch rule, 1658-1796; www.researchgate.net]
Hansken
Rembrandt’s work covers several genres. One of them is animals. He would paint, draw or etch (domestic) horses, cows, pigs and a dog, but also non-dutch animals, like a camel and lions. In all he would draw over 20 animals, see Hinterding and Schatborn (2019), 285ff.
The elephant Hansken would be drawn by Rembrandt at least three times. The animal had been born in 1630 in present-day Sri Lanka and arrived in Amsterdam in 1633, at the same time as a leopard and a deer, among others.
The animal became famous throughout Europe, mainly because an elephant as a large animal (then quite mythical) was almost unknown and it could do many ‘tricks’. Examples: firing a gun, lifting her front paws, bowing, brandishing a saber, and taking off a hat. The most popular were the tricks that involved the audience. This way, Hansken was able to point out and unmask an alleged thief in the audience.
The animal is in the Netherlands from 1633 to 1637. In 1636 the stadtholder gave Hansken as a gift to his cousin Johan Maurits. He sold the elephant for 8,000 guilders. After this, Hansken was sold to Cornelis Jacobsz. van Groenevelt. Hansken was taken through Europe for twenty years. In the farthest reaches of the continent, people could see the elephant at fairs and annual markets; she could show her skills. A lot of people came to fairs and that meant of course considerable earnings.
The European route she took starts in the Netherlands, in The Hague and in 1637 Hansken is in Amsterdam, the fair in September that year. Rembrandt’s first sketch of Hansken dates from that year. Hansken was present again at the Amsterdam autumn fairs in 1641 and 1647. She remained an attraction for several generations.
[An elephant and some figures, 1637, London, British Museum]
In Amsterdam she was exhibited to the public for money. The proceeds benefited the poor. The tour of this traveling attraction then continues through the Baltic Sea area: Hamburg, Bremen, Königsberg (now Kalingrad) and three places in Poland. In 1640-1641 she returned to the Netherlands: Groningen, Zwolle, Harderwijk and five other places. In 1643 she headed south: to Ghent (Belgium), Paris and Arles (France). Then for about seven years the animal criss-crossed through the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Austria and the Czech Republic. From 1651 a large number of places in Switzerland and again Germany, with her last destination Italy in 1654. Hansken died in 1655, in Florence, Italy. Her skeleton has been preserved in Florence, displayed in the natural history museum La Specola.
JW hier The Fall / Adam en Eva in het paradijs
[Adam and Eve in Paradise, 1638. Etching, state 2;
Amsterdam, The Rembrandt House Museum]
Rembrandt
Rembrandt is intrigued by Hansken. When he etched the Fall (or: Adam and Eve in Paradise; or: The Fall of Man) in 1638, he did not depict Adam and Eve in an idyllic or specific religious way. They are sketched ‘after life’ (‘nae ‘t leven’). As natural as possible. They are about to commit the sin of their lives. A unique event.
For which reason does Rembrandt sketch, in the deep background, a small elephant in this etching (in the background, apparently in a valley, meticulously)?
For the unique position that Hansken has occupied in European cultural history, I refer to the references below.
I was reminded of the story about Hansken for 2 reasons.
1 When visited ‘The Weeping Elephant’ (mid-July 2024), near Dordrecht (the Biesbosch). It is a mighty beast, made of wood and steel, by artist Jantien Mook. The elephant is 5 meters high (Hansken would grow to 3 meters!).
The artwork ‘The Weeping Elephant’ has already been in various places (Rotterdam, Haarlem, Amsterdam, Brussels and Hamburg). The artist wants to pay tribute to the wilderness with her traveling elephant. The elephant hopes to surprise people and make them reflect on the beauty and influence of our nature in which we are all connected.
Whether it can be visited, in Dordrecht (Haniapolder, part of the Nieuwe Dordtse Biesbosch) or elsewhere, see www.dordrecht.nl/theweepingelephant or https://www.odetothewilderness.com/the-weeping-elephant/?lang=nl
2 Second reason. Rembrandt’s paintings by many are seen as typically Dutch. In a way, that makes sense; he has never travelled beyond the borders of present Netherlands. However, what’s outside the Netherlands comes to him. Cross-border see trade brought many items through the port, from all over the world to Amsterdam. Rembrandt enjoyed collecting these new, inspiring things. One of the exclusive rarities is an elephant!
References
Literature referred to can be found under Sources via www.rembrandtsmoney.com.
Maciesza, Nathalie, and Epco Runia, ‘Rembrandt & de wereld/the World’, Zwolle: WBOOKS, 2024.
Dieusaert, Tom, Rond de Kaap. Isaac le Maire contra de VOC, Ertsberg 2023.
Roscam Abbing, Michiel, Rembrandts olifant. In het spoor van Hansken. Leporello Uitgevers, 2016.
Sloten, Leonore van, Over Rembrandt en olifantsbillen ‘nae ’t leven’. Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis 2021, 30-41. https://doi.org/10.48296/KvhR2021.03