Willem de Rooij - Dirk Valkenburg

Abstract

Amsterdam painter Dirk Valkenburg (1675–1721) created early depictions of Indigenous and enslaved people on Surinamese sugar plantations, as well as ornate hunting still lifes and portraits of colonial elites. Edited by Willem de Rooij and Karwan Fatah Black, this volume combines a catalogue raisonné developed in collaboration with the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague – and a critical reader featuring newly commissioned essays by leading international scholars. It is conceived as a pendant to De Rooij’s installation Valkenburg, which opened at the Centraal Museum Utrecht in September 2025. This book and the exhibition together invite reflection on how 18th-century visual culture helped normalize colonial ideology.