A Return to Sri Lanka

Even today, the Sri Lankan born artist Pieter De Bevere remains something of a man of mystery but his beautiful studies of the Island’s flora and fauna are a prized part of the collection at London’s Natural History Museum.

PIETER CORNELIUS DE BEVERE, Purple-faced leaf monkey (Trachypithecus vetulus), 1754-57.

What we do know of Pieter is tied up with his powerful patron. It was the Dutch Governor Joan Gideon Loten who first commissioned Pieter to create a series of natural history drawings.

Loten was such an enthusiastic amateur zoologist and collector that he was dubbed the ‘naturalist Governor of Ceylon.’

Loten ensured that Pieter’s work was seen by many European scientists – he even allowed many of the
drawings to be reproduced in books.

Looking at Pieter’s work now – his drawings of the dainty water lily and purple faced leaf
monkey, the peacock, the clownfish and even the atlas moth – it might be hard to imagine what a rare opportunity they represented to European naturalists and artists.

For them, the collection had a great scientific value, not only because it was one of the first of its kind to come from Asia but also because Loten himself had carefully annotated each drawing. (In fact, it is from one of Loten’s annotations that we know Pieter died an untimely death, though we do not know the cause.)

All the drawings were very detailed and of exceptional quality – the largest group of drawings are birds, which Loten was particularly interested in, however Pieter also sketched many mammals, fish, insects, marine invertebrates and plants from Sri Lanka and the Malay Archipelago. Today, 154 of Pieter’s paintings have been carefully preserved.

The work of Pieter De Bevere is one among many at 'A Return to Sri Lanka': an exhibition of images of Sri Lanka from British Collections (1640 – 1900). This exhibition draws maps, manuscripts,

illustrations, early photographs and paintings of Sri Lanka from several distinguished British institutions — principally the British Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum – as well as the National Museum (Colombo). The exhibition is co-curated by British and Sri Lankan curators and produced in partnership between the British Library and the British Council (Sri Lanka), with funding provided by the World Collection’s Programme.