THOMAS DANIELL (1749-1840)

 

“Watering Place Anger Point Straights of Sunda”

 

Titled and dated or numbered 68 on the reverse

Pencil and watercolour on paper, 36 x 52 cm

Watermarked James Whatman, Strassbourg (fleur-de-lys in shield)

Note:
In July 1785 on their way to India via Canton and again in April 1794 on their return from Canton, Thomas Daniell and his nephew William Daniell (1769-1837) visited Anger Point (Anjer kidoel) in the Strait of Sunda, the westernmost point of the island of Java. Ten Javanese subjects are included in Thomas and William’s Daniell’s book A Picturesque voyage to India by way of China, published in 1810, plates 10- 19, including two plates (12 and 14) of Anger Point. The present watercolour 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 apparently did not work up this, or any of his other Javanese watercolours, into finished oil paintings. William did and his large oil painting The watering place at Anger point, on the island of Java was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836 and now is in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. The Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra was the passage for virtually all trade between the Indian Ocean and the Chinese Sea. Anger Point, the victualling station and trading post on the Strait, would be obliterated a century later by the cataclysmic eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in 1883.