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Amsterdam painter Dirk Valkenburg (1675–1721) produced some of the earliest depictions of Indigenous and enslaved people on Surinamese sugar plantations – idealized images that conceal the violence of colonialism. He also painted ornate hunting still lifes and portraits of patrons whose wealth derived from colonial trade and slavery. Through this very variety of genres, Valkenburg’s paintings demonstrate the workings of the ‘white gaze’. Edited by Willem de Rooij and Karwan Fatah-Black, this volume joins the first catalogue raisonné of Valkenburg’s work – developed in collaboration with the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague – and a critical reader of newly commissioned essays by leading international scholars. Uniting voices from art history, anthropology, postcolonial and queer studies across Europe and the Americas, it contextualizes Valkenburg’s oeuvre through interdisciplinary and transcultural dialogue. Conceived as a pendant to De Rooij’s installation 'Valkenburg' at the Centraal Museum Utrecht (2025), the book and exhibition together invite reflection on how eighteenth-century Dutch elites used visual culture to normalize colonial ideology.

Biografie

Willem de Rooij (b. 1969) creates temporary installations that explore the politics of representation across various media. Appropriation and collaboration are central to his artistic method, and his projects have stimulated new research in art history and ethnography. In 2000 De Rooij won the Bâloise Art Prize, and he was nominated for the Hugo Boss Award in 2004 and the Vincent Award in 2014. He was a Robert Fulton Fellow at Harvard University in 2004 and a DAAD fellow in Berlin in 2006. He represented the Netherlands at the 2005 Venice Biennale with Jeroen de Rijke, his collaborative partner from 1994-2006. Recent solo exhibitions took place at Portikus Frankfurt (2021), LAXart, Los Angeles (2019), IMA Brisbane (2017) and Consortium, Dijon (2015). De Rooij has taught and lectured extensively since 1998. He is Professor of Fine Art at the Städelschule, Frankfurt/Main since 2006, and advisor at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam since 2015. In 2016 he co-founded BPA// Berlin program for artists, and became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. De Rooij’s works can be found in the collections of Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; MUMOK, Vienna; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Centre Pompidou, Paris; MOCA, Los Angeles and MOMA, New York. Melchior d’Hondecoeter (1636-1695), Willem de Rooij and Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer (eds.), Volume 2 from Intolerance, published for an exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie. Dusseldorf (Feymedia Verlagsgesellschaft) 2010 Karwan Fatah-Black (1981) is historicus en docent aan de opleiding Geschiedenis van de Universiteit Leiden.

Inhoudsopgave

7 Foreword Bart Rutten 11 Designing Difference Willem de Rooij and Karwan Fatah-Black ESSAYS Life and Work 31 Dirk Valkenburg: A Painter in Amsterdam and Suriname Mark Ponte 45 The Rebellion at Palmeneribo Frank Dragtenstein 55 The Standardized Production of Dirk Valkenburg’s Trophy Still Lifes Julie Hartkamp 77 Dirk Valkenburg’s Hunting Still Lifes in a Colonial Context Maurice Saß 91 Dirk Valkenburg as a Portrait Painter: Education and Network Sabine Craft-Giepmans Appraisal 109 The History of Renaming and Reinterpreting Dirk Valkenburg’s Gathering of Enslaved People on One of Jonas Witsen’s Plantations in Suriname Rebecca Parker Brienen 127 The Market Appreciation and Provenance of Dirk Valkenburg’s Oeuvre Matthies Klink Tropics 143 Histories and Historicities: Beyond the Picture Frame Renzo S. Duin, Philip Dikland, Agir Axwijk 161 Traumascapes, or When Dirk Valkenburg’s Landscape Paintings Are Seen from the Perspective of the Subaltern Renzo S. Duin and Agir Axwijk 181 Slavery as an Aquatic Still Life Alex van Stipriaan 195 Meta Race Play and Historical Rescue Will Furtado Fredo Visual Culture 205 Dirk Valkenburg’s Coconuts Benjamin Schmidt 227 Edenic Tropics and Decadent Humanity Lilia Moritz Schwarcz 245 Labouring Bodies: Dirk Valkenburg’s Gathering of Enslaved People on One of Jonas Witsen’s Plantations in Suriname in Context Sarah Thomas Afterword 263 The Meaning of a Flag Karin Amatmoekrim CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ 270 Introduction 274 Game and Hunting Scenes 370 Animal Scenes 400 Fruit Still Lifes 410 Works Made in Suriname 462 Portraits 504 Copies after Lost Portraits 509 Dirk Valkenburg’s Estate Inventory: A Transcription 521 Bibliography 542 Archives 543 Databases 545 Author Biographies 549 Index INSTALLATION VIEWS 566 List of Exhibited Works

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