painter and cartographer, was born in Amsterdam, son of Rembrandt’s pupil Johannes Victors (1620-76) who died in the East Indies where he and Victor had been living. In 1696 Victor Victorszoon travelled as a 'krankbezoeker’ (medical attendant) in the Geelvink commanded by Willem de Vlamingh to Tristan de Cunha, Amsterdam and St Paul then to the west coast of Australia. In each place he made coastal views in watercolour. They are the sole visual record of the voyage, apart from a large number of drawings of aquatic animals Victorzsoon is known to have executed, which are now lost. Also presumed lost, these delicate coastal details were rediscovered in the Maritime Museum 'Prins Hendrik’ in Rotterdam in 1970 by Günter Schilder. They include 15 paintings of the 'Zuidland’ (west coast of Australia) executed between 29 December 1696 and 21 February 1697, which together with the coastal views of Van Diemen’s Land in Abel Tasman’s journal (1642, attributed to Isaac Gilsemans ) constitute the earliest known images of the continent. Victorszoon’s paintings correspond to localities delineated and described on his decorated manuscript map of the Zuidland (1697) he completed after the voyage (Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague).
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- Writers:
- Eisler, William
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
