Man in a dark gold-embroidered uniform with a blue sash and epaulettes, resting his hand on a paper on a rock

Posthumous Portrait of Herman Willem Daendels, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies

See it in the 3D Museum View the full image

What you see

Herman Willem Daendels stands in three-quarter length before a landscape of green hills and mountains. His dark uniform gleams with gold embroidery on the collar and chest, heavy gold epaulettes and a blue sash across his body, with two star-shaped decorations. In his right hand he holds a brass spyglass; his left rests on a sheet of paper spread over a rock.

The golds of the uniform play against the pale blue of the sash and the greens behind him, under a cloudy sky touched with pink. A dark cloak falls from his arm and fills the lower part. Watch for the red ribbon pinned below his collar and the painter’s signature in the lower right.

About Raden Saleh

Raden Saleh was born around 1811 near Semarang, on Java, and was the first Javanese to be trained as a painter in the Western manner: he arrived in Europe in 1829 and lived there for about twenty years. A Romantic painter, he became famous for his dramatic scenes of wild animals and hunts, his Javanese landscapes and his portraits. His painting “The Arrest of Prince Diponegoro” has been part of Indonesia’s national heritage since 2014, and his house in Jakarta, inspired by a German castle, is now a hospital.

All 12 works by Raden Saleh

More by Raden Saleh

The Arcadópolis Museum has 443 public-domain works in 40 rooms, free to explore in 3D in your browser.

Enter the Museum