Johan Willem de Stürler

Johan Willem de Stürler
Kawahara Keiga: Trading post director Johan Willem de Stürler, 8 October 1825. Detail from "Big party".
Other name(s)	Johan Willem de Sturler
Born	(1774-12-07)December 7, 1774 Sittard
Died	January 9, 1855(1855-01-09) (aged 80) Paris
Commands	Director of the Dutch trading post at Dejima, Nagasaki, Japan

Kawahara Keiga: "Big party". Trading post director Johan Willem de Stürler (center) and company in his residence at Desjima, Nagasaki, Japan, 8 October 1825, as a delayed celebration of the birthday of King William I. Philipp Franz von Siebold is sitting center left.

Johan Willem de Stürler (also Johan Wilhelm de Sturler, Jean Guillaume de Sturler and Jean Guillaume de Stürler, Sittard, 7 December 1774 - Paris, 9 January 1855) was a Dutch colonel in the Dutch army and director of the Dutch trading post at Dejima, Nagasaki, Japan.[1][2]

Biography

Johan Willem de Sturler was born into the Dutch nobility of the De Stürler family from Switzerland,[3] as a son of Johan Rudolf de Stürler (1723-1823) and Agnes Suzanne Soeterik (1746-1823). He had been a tax inspector before entering military service in the Dutch army as a artillery captain.[1] In 1797 de Sturler married Sybille Elisabeth van Biesen (1774-1807) at Tiel, the Netherlands, who gave him four children.[2]

From 20 November 1823 up to 5 August 1826 he was director (Dutch: opperhoofd) of the Dutch trading post on the island Dejima at Nagasaki, Japan, as a successor to Jan Cock Blomhoff. Accompanied by the physician Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866), he visited the Shogun at his palace in Edo in 1826. He passed away in Paris in 1855.

Role in art history

Katsushika Hokusai: Tôkaidô gojûsan tsugi, before 1827. Sturler Collection, Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Sturler was instrumental in bringing work by Japanese painter Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) to Europe which had been commissioned by Jan Cock Blomhoff.[4][5] The Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris still retains this collection.[6] At first Siebold did not want to pay Hokusai the full agreed price, but Stürler protested and paid in full.[7]

Literature

• de Stürler, Adam Emanuel Carolus (1863). Généalogische aanteekeningen van de familie de Stürler (in Dutch). Roermond: J.J. Romen. OCLC 82525440.

References

1. Nederland's Adelsboek 1905 (in Dutch). 's Gravenhage [The Hague]: Van Stockum & Zn. 1905. ISSN 0921-9021. OCLC 781336407. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
2. "West-Europese adel. Johan Willem de Stürler (1774-1855)" [Western European nobility. Johan Willem de Stürler (1774-1855)]. genealogieonline.nl (in Dutch). Coret Genealogie.
3. De Sturler family on Dutch-language Wikipedia.
4. "Hokusai's Commission from the Dutch East India Company". edwardluperart.com. January 12, 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2025..
5. Sandler, Mark H. (1996). "Review. Hokusai Paintings: Selected Essays by Gian Carlo Calza". The Journal of Japanese Studies. 22 (1). University of California Press: 159–163. JSTOR 133056.
6. "Hokusai à la rencontre de l'Occident [Images animées] : les peintures de la collection Sturler : conférence du 23 janvier 2018" [Hokusai Meets the West [Animated Images]: Paintings from the Sturler Collection : conference of 23 January 2018]. catalogue.bnf.fr (in French). Paris: BnF Bibliothèque nationale de France. January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2025., and "Johan Willem de Sturler (1774-1855)" (in French). BnF Bibliothèque nationale de France. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
7. "Masterpieces of Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde". Leiden: Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde. April 22, 2013. Retrieved 16 January 2025.