Louis André Driessen

Father (Felix) and son (Louis) Driessen belong to the group of colorists who busy themselves with every part of the colorist’s job, especially the chemical research and the processing of innovations - paraphrased from the book Werkplaatsen van wetenschap en techniek: Industriële en academische laboratoria in Nederland 1860-1940 (Workshops of science and technique: Industrial and academic laboratories in the Netherlands 1860-1940).

Noting the importance and consequential high status of the colorist in cotton printers, it is of no surprise that Louis’ oldest son, Felix, was destined to be a colorist. Felix Driessen walked in the footsteps of his father Peter Ludwig Carl, also named Louis, who himself inherited the occupation from his father Johann Heinrich Joseph. Johann took over De Heyder & Co. in 1846, which later became the Leidsche Katoenmaatschappij (see also the story Fake Batik - Misleiden).

Louis André Driessen, the donator of our six cloths, walked in the footsteps of his forefathers and succeeded them as the new director and colorist. As a colorist, he was mostly busy thinking about new technical combinations for dyeing the cloths. Dyes that are appropriate for painting cotton cannot be mixed or printed in the same way without caution. Some dyes need a so-called acidic environment to bind to the cloth, while others need an alkaline environment (the opposite of acidic). The trick is to get the dyes mixed and printed in order to reach new color combinations. It helps to learn from already existing dyeing techniques. Practice makes perfect, and that is what these cloths were probably used for, perhaps even by Louis himself.

The cloths show us the manufacturing process of batik in six stages. Each cloth shows a different stage in this process. Let us move on to the first stage.