De tuinman, de geldschieter, de koelie-werver en de mandoer

The Hungarian planter László Székely was active as a painter on Sumatra during the first decennia of the 20th century. In 1923 he painted four portraits of people from the plan­ters’ community: The Mandoer, The Moneylender, The Toekang-kebon and The Koelie recruiter, which appeared in the weekly paper De Zweep. In this article I will give an over­view of the cultural life in Deli and place Székely’s work in this context. Further­more, I will explain the uniqueness of Székely’s portraits, using the theory of the English cultural historian Peter Burke.