Unknown artist, Indo-European; Javanese; Indo-Chinese

Batik has earned its place as Indonesia's national cloth. Initially the sole domain of women in a private domestic setting, batik design and production changed rapidly in the 19th century, as it transformed into a commercially viable product with the advent of European demand and efficient production methods such as stamping versus hand drawing. Commercial batik dyeing developed first in the large port cities of Jakarta, Semarang, and Surabaya. In 1850 Pekalongan became an important batik center, where Peranakan, Indo-Arabian, and within a decade Indo-European women all established active batik businesses. Each of these Javanese cities' textiles displays distinctive styles and colors that have evolved over the 19th and 20th century in response to global influence. The Indo-European sarong fragment here, for example, illustrates the taste for western, Art Nouveau subjects.