Plantation in Suriname

In 1707 Suriname was run by a chartered society in which the city of Amsterdam held a share, and Jonas Witsen, who had owned this plantation since 1702, stayed at home in Amsterdam. This small canvas was made so that he could see his property. Valkenburg signed it at the bottom, Valkenburg Surin: 1707, noting that it was painted in the colony itself. Tall awara palms frame the view. Far back between them stand the gables of the brick main house, possibly at Palmeneribo on the Suriname River. The foreground belongs to a group of Lokono, Indigenous people of the region, with a dwelling of palm leaves and, at the left, a square fence probably made of sugar-cane stalks. The enslaved people who did the work on the plantation are left out of the picture.