No.- 58. — 1907.] JOAN GIDEON LOTEN, F.ft.S. 



219 



where they had to undergo the disadvantages of the often un- 

 hygienic and damp dwellings of the Company's servants, and 

 these in addition to the great danger of long voyages by sailing 

 ship. 



As the third and, in my opinion, perhaps the most remark- 

 able feature, I may mention that the artist was a man of three- 

 fourths Indian (namely, Ceylonese) blood, who had received 

 very little instruction, certainly none in drawing or painting, 

 and yet in spite of this produced this work, which — as I hope 

 presently further to demonstrate — deserves our admiration 

 in a high degree. 



Let me now name the artist to you and tell you the little that 

 I know regarding his person. 



He was named de Bevere, and was what we should now- 

 adays call an Indo or " country-born," but was at that time 

 reckoned among the " native Christians," according to the 

 note on one of the plates of his employer, J. G. Lot en, who 

 there calls him " the untaught Christian Cingalese,"* to which 

 he adds the following regarding his origin f : — " His father, 

 whom I have known, was a natural son of the major de Bevere 

 (of the most noble and ancient family of de Bevere) by a Cin- 

 galese or black Portuguese woman ; this son was married at 

 Colombo with a similar brownish woman of whom the artist 

 was a son. In 1755 the father seemed about 50 or 55, J the 

 mother 50, the son I guessed was circa 22, was on [sic — ? in] 

 the Surveyor's office somewhat instructed in handling com- 

 passes and scales." In a letter written in 1781 Loten also 

 says of him : " a youth born of native Ceylonese parents, living 

 with me and helping me very much in drawing." 



From this it appears that de Bevere was unmarried ; that he 

 accompanied Loten when the latter was transferred to Batavia 

 in 1757 ; and also that he did not attain to any considerable 

 age. In one of the notes, made by Loten later in England on 

 the plates, we read of " the late de Bevere." That was about 

 the year 1781. 



This is all that I know at present of the artist. 



* The words quoted are in English. 



f The quotation that follows is also in English. 



% On this, see footnote further on. 



