Portrait of Mattheus de Haan, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies

Portraits of the governors general. At the head of the VOC administration in Asia was the governor general, the chairman of the East Indies Council, which met in Batavia. The Council's assembly chamber at the Castle in Batavia was the focal point of Dutch power. Along the walls hung the portraits of all the past governors general, symbolising the continuity of the Dutch presence. Smaller copies at the Company's offices in the Netherlands represented the VOC's power in Asia. The copies displayed here probably come from the VOC's Rotterdam Chamber. Some of the portraits from the series that hung in Batavia are displayed above in the VOC gallery that circles this room.