Berthe Hoola van Nooten the life and work of an unprecedented flower artist

Berthe Hoola van Nooten (Utrecht, October 12, 1817 – Batavia, April 12, 1892) was a Dutch teacher, illustrator and botanist, known for her botanical work Fleurs, Fruits et Feuillages, choisis de l'île de Java with drawings from her hand.

Suriname

Little is known about the first decades of her life. She was born in Utrecht (or Wageningen as Bartha Hendrica Philippina van Dolder. She trained as a teacher in Wageningen and obtained her diploma as a girls' school keeper in 1835. On July 11, 1838 she married master Dirk Hoola van Nooten. She followed her husband to the British colony of Georgetown and then to Suriname, a Dutch colony, where he practiced law and resolved legal disputes. For this purpose he regularly traveled between Paramaribo and the plantations. In Suriname she had a relatively carefree and happy period, during which she devoted herself to her work as a teacher and drawing nature. However, the abolition of slavery in 1833 in the English colonies, including British Guiana, had an impact on the local economy and caused unrest in neighboring Suriname.

North America

Due to increasing economic uncertainty, the Hoola van Nooten family decided to leave the Dutch colony in 1845 and move to North America. Later, the couple ran a Protestant girls' school in New Orleans, the Academy for young ladies. Dirk died in 1847 from yellow fever and Berthe was left alone with five children. To support herself, she continued attending girls' schools in Plaquemine, Louisiana and Galveston, Texas, but could not get out of debt. Her wealthy half-brother Vincent Jacob van Dolder persuaded her to come to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia); he paid for her arrival.

Batavia

Bertha arrived in Batavia in 1856. There she tried to establish a school again for "education and secondary education for young teachers" from "the civilized class". She received an allowance of 1,500 guilders per month from the Government for a trial period of one year. As proof of competence, she could present a "certificate of admission as a school teacher in the Dutch, High German, French and English languages", issued by the Provincial Committee of Education in Gelderland. The school, in the better area of ​​Batavia, started on July 1, 1857 with 23 students; but the subsidy was discontinued at the end of 1858. Bertha had to continue on a more modest scale. In 1860 she announced in the Java-bode that she would run a boarding school for twelve "civilized girls" in Buitenzorg. More important was the request from the management of 's Lands Botanical garden in Buitenzorg, south of Batavia, to draw flowers and plants in life-size. This assignment, which she received in 1860, earned her an allowance of one thousand guilders.

Biography of Berthe Hoola van Nooten

The book "Berthe Hoola van Nooten (1817-1892): Life and work of an unprecedented flower artist" by David Apollonius Coppoolse and Marcel van Drost offers an in-depth insight into the life and achievements of Berthe Hoola van Nooten, a Dutch botanical artist from the 19th century. The work highlights her adventurous life journey, which took her through Suriname, Louisiana, Texas, New York and ultimately the Dutch East Indies. In 1863, Berthe published the book "Fleurs, Fruits et Feuillages Choisis de l'île de Java" in Brussels, a collection of plates about the flora of Java. This work was distinguished by its combination of artistic beauty and botanical accuracy, and was remarkably created by a woman in an era when botany was largely male-dominated. Coppoolse's biography sheds new light on Berthe's life and work, highlighting her unique contribution to botanical art and science. The book is available at various bookstores and offers a valuable addition to the knowledge about this special flower artist.

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Berthe Hoola van Nooten Fleurs, Fruits et Feuillages, choisis de l'île de Java