Javanese Batik-workers of the Kunstarbeid (Art-Work Depot), Jogyakarta, Java, by Elfria Tharle-Hughes, 1923.

The picture depicts the interior of a workshop, with eleven Javanese women seated on the ground drawing by hand the patterns on cotton cloths supported on bamboo stands. In the foreground are colour bowls [bowls of colours?], implements, and a wax-heating stove used in the batik process.

Given by the artist

Elfrida Tharle-Hughes (1874-1950) was an English artist, born in Ryde, Isle of Wight on the 25th April 1874. She had two siblings, Esther (1871) and Reggie (1873). They were the only grand-children of Jabez Hughes (1819-84), Photographer to Queen Victoria whilst at Osborne House, and lived at Jabez’s photographic studio at 60-60 ½ Union Street, Ryde. Her family name was originally ‘Hughes’, added ‘Tharle’ in1921 in gratitude to her mother for the sacrifices she made bringing her up after their Father’s premature death at 35.

Elfrida received art training at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and ateliers in Paris. She spent two years travelling to Asia, including China, Japan, Korea, India, Burma, Thailand and Indonesia in the 1920s and had produced several drawings in watercolours, of which she donated five pictures to the V&A in 1928.

The “Javanese Batik Workers” was finished on July 21, 1923, at Djokjakarta (Yogyakarta), Indonesia. By the courtesy of the Kunstarbeid (art work depot) there, Elfrida was permitted to sketch in their actual workshop, while the women worked. The artist claimed that under the auspices of the Dutch Government, the best Batik in Java was done there.

This picture shows a group of Javanese batik-workers belonging to the Art-Work (Kunstarbeid) Depot in Jogyakarta, Java. It depicts the interior of a workshop, with eleven women seated on the ground drawing by hand the patterns on cotton cloths supported on bamboo stands. In the foreground are bowls of colours, implements, and a wax-heating stove used in the batik process.

IM.47-1928