Artwork

Ludolph Anne Jan Wilt Baron Sloet van de Beele (1806-90). Gouverneur-generaal (1861-66)

Ludolph Anne Jan Wilt Baron Sloet van de Beele (1806-90). Gouverneur-generaal (1861-66) is an oil painting by the Realist artist Barend Leonardus Hendriks. It dates from 1867 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.

About this work

Subject & Meaning

Rendered in oil on canvas, the work emphasizes his official stature through formal attire and composed posture, typical of 19th-century Dutch portraiture.

The portrait shows Ludolph Anne Jan Wilt Baron Sloet van de Beele, who served as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1861 to 1866. Rendered in oil on canvas, the work emphasizes his official stature through formal attire and composed posture, typical of 19th-century Dutch portraiture. The painting functions as both a record of colonial administration and a statement of aristocratic identity within the Netherlands' imperial structure. It is housed in the Rijksmuseum collection.

Technique & Style

The portrait is executed in oil paint on canvas, a standard combination for mid-nineteenth-century formal portraiture. The work measures 133.5 cm in height by 106 cm in width, a substantial upright format suited to a full- or half-length official likeness of a colonial governor-general.

Stylistically, the painting belongs to the tradition of official state portraiture, with the sitter depicted in a formal pose consistent with Hendriks's portrait practice of the period. The canvas support and oil medium allow for the controlled, polished handling typical of such commissions.

History & Provenance

Barend Leonardus Hendriks executed this oil-on-canvas portrait of Ludolph Anne Jan Wilt Baron Sloet van de Beele in 1867. The work was created one year after the subject concluded his term as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, a position he held from 1861 to 1866. Measuring 133.5 by 106 centimeters, the painting depicts the former official in a formal capacity. The artwork entered the collection of the Rijksmuseum, where it remains housed.

Overview

Barend Leonardus Hendriks painted an oil portrait of Ludolph Anne Jan Wilt Baron Sloet van de Beele in 1867. The work, now part of the Rijksmuseum collection, records the former Governor‑General of the Dutch East Indies, who served from 1861 to 1866 and lived between 1806 and 1890.

Context

The painting belongs to a broader tradition of official portraiture that commemorated colonial officials in the mid‑19th century. Such works served both as personal memorials and as visual affirmations of the state’s reach, often displayed in governmental or public settings.