|
 |
Joan Gideon Loten (1710-1789)
Joan Gideon Loten was born in Holland in 1710. In 1732, he became an ‘under merchant’ for the Dutch East India Company and travelled to Batavia, now Jakarta which is part of Indonesia. Loten was soon promoted to the post of Governor for the Company in Ceylon ( Sri Lanka) and served from 1752 to 1757. Loten was interested in the natural and social history of Asia, as well as archaeology, metereology and cartography. In addition to his official duties, Loten made time to study his surroundings. To assist him, Loten employed the Sri Lankan, Pieter Cornelius de Bevere (1722 - died before 1781). Loten was fortunate in his choice as De Bevere was an extremely talented self-taught artist, who under Loten’s patronage became an able naturalist and well regarded painter. Little is known about Pieter de Bevere’s life. Born in 1722, he was the grandson of Major W. H. de Bevere (also known as Beveren). Pieter de Bevere entered the Dutch East India Company’s service in 1743 as an assistant surveyor, becoming a qualified surveyor in 1754. It is believed that Loten and De Bevere developed a good working relationship, when Loten travelled to Batavia (Jakarta) in 1757, De Bevere accompanied him and was promoted to the rank of bookkeeper. Loten was repatriated in 1758 but it is unknown what happened to De Bevere as he virtually disappeared from the historical record, it only being known that he died before 1781. Following a long dispute over money with the East India Company, Loten was to spend most of the rest of his life in Fulham, near London, devoting his time to natural history. English society recognised his contribution to natural history and in 1760 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Loten was to return to Utrecht, in The Netherlands, a few
years before his death in 1789 and even though Loten died
there, such was his importance in England, that an impressive
monument was erected in his memory in the North Aisle of Westminster
Abbey in 1793. The monument remains on display to this day.
The Loten Collection held at the Natural History Museum consists of 154 watercolours and were mostly drawn by Pieter Cornelius de Bevere. Drawn from life, they are of exceptional quality and many are annotated by Joan Gideon Loten. The largest group of drawings are birds, which Loten was particularly interested in, however mammals, fish, insects, marine invertebrates and plants are also represented. The organisms illustrated are mostly from Sri Lanka and the Malay Archipelago and have been drawn with great attention to detail. The collection is of great scientific value. It is one of the earliest collections of drawings of fauna and flora from Asia to be made available to the naturalists and artists then working in London. Loten was notably generous in making his collection available to naturalists and even lent particular drawings so that they could be reproduced in books. Many natural historians and artists have used the drawings and notes by Loten and De Bevere, either directly or indirectly. These have included the famous naturalists Carl Linnaeus, Sir Joseph Banks, Thomas Pennant, Johann Reinhold Forster, George Edwards, J. F. Gmelin, Peter Brown, Sydney Parkinson and many others. Books that have used the drawings include Peter Brown’s New Illustrations of Zoology (1776), and the first edition of Thomas Pennant’s Indian Zoology (1769). The drawings shown in this selection demonstrate the full
range of De Bevere's versatility with the delicate Water Lily,
the wistful Purple-faced Leaf Monkey, the magnificent Peacock,
the comical Clown trigger-fish and the meticulously depicted
Atlas moth.
Exhibition and publication details Bevere, P. C. de. (1990) Bird drawings from the Loten Collection. Eleven art reproductions produced by Porter Design, Bath, 1990. The paintings that were reproduced were: Brown fish owl (no.3), little horn owl (no.4), Alexandrine parakeet (nos.5,8), lory (nos.14, 17), Indian roller (nos.68,70), summer teal (no.97), lesser whistling duck (no.98) and Peafowl (no.88). Numbers refer to the originals. Brown, P. (1776) New illustrations of Zoology containing . . . plates of new . . . Birds, with a few Quadrupeds, Reptiles and Insects, &c. London. 50 col. pls. Diessen, J. R. van & Belt, A. van den (1987) Een Toelichting
op zes topografische aquarellen van Ceylon in het Rijksprentenkabinet
= Notes on six topographical watercolours of Ceylon in the
Rijksprentenkabinet. Houten, P. J. van (1907) Joan Gideon Loten, F.R.S., the naturalist Governor of Ceylon (1752-57), and the Ceylonese artist de Bevere. [A translation by Donald Ferguson of an address and a paper by P.J. van Houten, in the Indische Mercuur, Amsterdam, June 6, 1905 & March 13, 1906; with notes by D. Ferguson, and memoranda by R.G. Anthonisz, Feb. 22, 1907, & F.H. de Vos.]. Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Vol.19, no.58, p. 217-271. Legge, W. V. (1983) A History of the Birds of Ceylon. 2nd edition. In 4 volumes. Tisara Prakasakayo, Dehiwala, Sri Lanka. (Limited edition. Originally published, 1878-1880). [1624p.] Pennant, T. (1769) Indian Zoology. London. 14 p., 12 col. pls. Rice, A. L. (1999) Voyages of discovery: three centuries
of natural history exploration. Scriptum Editions in
association with the Natural History Museum, London : London.
336pp.
References and further reading Anderson, R. C. (1996) Common reef fishes of Sri Lanka. Wildlife Heritage Trust of Sri Lanka: Colombo. 80pp. Ashton, M. S. et al. (1997) A field guide to the common trees and shrubs of Sri Lanka. WHT Publications for the Wildlife Heritage Trust of Sri Lanka: Colombo, Sri Lanka. 430pp. Grewal, B. & Monga, S. & Wright, G. (1995) Birds
of the Indian subcontinent. 2nd edition. Revised. Guidebook
Co.: Hongkong. 193pp. Gurung, K. K. & Singh, R. (1996) Mammals of the Indian subcontinent and where to watch them: covering India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesch, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Indian Experience: Wolvercote, Oxford. 150pp. Harrison, J. & Worfolk, T. (1999) A field guide to the birds of Sri Lanka. Oxford University Press : Oxford & New York. 219pp. Henry, G. M. (1998) A guide to the birds of Sri Lanka. 3rd edition. Revised and enlarged by T. W. Hoffmann, D. Warakagoda and U. Ekanayake. Oxford University Press : Dehli, Oxford. 488pp. Israel, S. and Sinclair, T. (eds.) (2001) Indian wildlife. 2nd ed. Insight guides series. APA : London. 359pp. Kazmierczak, K. & Perlo, B. van (2000) A Field guide to the birds of the Indian subcontinent. Pica Press : Mountfield, East Sussex. 352pp. Kotagama, S. & Jinasena, J. (2000) Endemic birds of Sri Lanka. WHT Publications : Colombo, Sri Lanka. 62pp. Kotagama, S. & Fernando, P. (1994, 1995 printing) A
field guide to the birds of Sri Lanka. Wildlife Heritage
Trust of Sri Lanka : Colombo, Sri Lanka. 224pp. Werner, W. L. (2001) Sri Lanka's magnificent cloud forests. WHT Publications : Colombo, Sri Lanka. 96pp. Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka & Uragoda, C. G. (1994) Wildlife conservation in Sri Lanka: a history of Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka, 1894-1994. Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka : Colombo, Sri Lanka. 162pp. The Natural History Museum and Sri Lanka; The
Paul Hermann Herbarium: Five Volumes of specimens and
drawings from Hermann's years in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) 1672-1677 Naggs, F. & Raheem, D. & Taylor, H. (2000) Land
snail diversity in Sri Lanka : an illustrated guide prepared
for the launch of the Darwin Initiative Programme. The
Natural History Museum : London. 203pp. |
|
