Borret, Arnold. “Diverse Surinaamse typen.” August 15, 1881. Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and the Caribbean Studies KITLV. Description: This watercolor by Arnold Borret (1848-88) consists of small sketches of different members of society and their various ethnic backgrounds in the Dutch colony of Suriname in the late 1880s. Borret was an accomplished amateur artist who was also a lawyer and a Roman Catholic priest. He studied law at the University of Leiden and practiced in Rotterdam before becoming a clerk, in 1878, to the Supreme Court in Paramaribo. He became a priest in 1883, with the intention of working with lepers in Suriname. He died of typhus in 1888. Borret is also known for his design for the interior of the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in Paramaribo, one of the largest wooden structures in the Caribbean.
