.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The Daniells were at Anjere Point (the site of the Dutch residence) on the western end of the island of Java on their outward voyage to India via Canton in 1785 and on their return from Canton in 1793-4. There are two views of the same watering place, both looking in the opposite direction, out to the Sunda Strait towards Krakatoa, by William Daniell: 'Watering Place at Anjere Point', plate 14 in Thomas and William Daniell's A Picturesque Voyage to India by Way of China, and the large oil The watering place at Angere point, on the island of Java exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836, and now in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (BHC1842), both views taken on the return voyage as they include the fleet with which the Daniells returned from China.
Ten Javanese subjects are included in Thomas and William Daniell's A Picturesque Voyage to India by Way of China (London, 1810), pls. 10-19, including two (pls. 12 and 14) of this same location. William Daniell exhibited three Javanese subjects taken at Anjere Point at the Royal Academy in 1813, 1823 and 1836. The present drawing by Thomas looks inland, and depicts an English sailor being offered a caged bird in the foreground, Javanese proas and canoes in the stream, sailors overseeing the replenishing of their water on the far bank, and the volcanic range rising above the palms. Thomas Daniell did not apparently work up this, nor any of his other Javanese drawings, into finished pictures. There are just a handful of small Javanese oils recorded by the artist, which include The Malays of Java (HSBC collection), the model for plate 18 in the Picturesque Voyage, the subject also taken at Anjere Point.
The Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra was the passage for virtually all East India trade as it made its way to the Indian Ocean. Its strategic importance was acknowledged when the French Republic declared war on Britain and the Dutch Republic in 1793 in the Sunda Strait campaign of January 1794, hostilities breaking out just months after the Daniells visit. Anjere (Anyer) Point, the victualling station and trading post on the Strait, would be obliterated by the cataclysmic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. The Daniells' work here is almost the first by western artists in south east Asia, only preceded by John Webber's views taken on Krakatoa on the return leg of Cook's last voyage in February 1780 (for which see lot 15).
Ten Javanese subjects are included in Thomas and William Daniell's A Picturesque Voyage to India by Way of China (London, 1810), pls. 10-19, including two (pls. 12 and 14) of this same location. William Daniell exhibited three Javanese subjects taken at Anjere Point at the Royal Academy in 1813, 1823 and 1836. The present drawing by Thomas looks inland, and depicts an English sailor being offered a caged bird in the foreground, Javanese proas and canoes in the stream, sailors overseeing the replenishing of their water on the far bank, and the volcanic range rising above the palms. Thomas Daniell did not apparently work up this, nor any of his other Javanese drawings, into finished pictures. There are just a handful of small Javanese oils recorded by the artist, which include The Malays of Java (HSBC collection), the model for plate 18 in the Picturesque Voyage, the subject also taken at Anjere Point.
The Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra was the passage for virtually all East India trade as it made its way to the Indian Ocean. Its strategic importance was acknowledged when the French Republic declared war on Britain and the Dutch Republic in 1793 in the Sunda Strait campaign of January 1794, hostilities breaking out just months after the Daniells visit. Anjere (Anyer) Point, the victualling station and trading post on the Strait, would be obliterated by the cataclysmic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. The Daniells' work here is almost the first by western artists in south east Asia, only preceded by John Webber's views taken on Krakatoa on the return leg of Cook's last voyage in February 1780 (for which see lot 15).