# Diorama of the Waterfront of Paramaribo

- By: Gerrit Schouten (Paramaribo (stad), 1779–1839)
- Date: 1820
- Medium: wood (plant material), papier mâché
- Classification: diorama
- Dimensions: height 70.7 cm x width 102 cm x depth 40 cm
- Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Johan Huizinga Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds, the Mondriaan Stichting, the Scato Gockinga Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds and the Stichting Dr Hendrik Muller’s Vaderlandsch Fonds
- Museum: [Rijksmuseum](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/NG-2007-50--1f9b11af5ad5f0717a0c8125fe3178b5)
- Rights: [Public Domain Mark](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/)
- Picture: https://iiif.micr.io/HGXPJ/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

The waterfront along the Suriname River was the vital hub of Surinamese trade. At left a merchantman sails out. The boat next to it – a pondo covered with leaves of the pina (a kind of palm) – carries goods to the plantations. Europeans used the green boat with the Dutch flag for their own transport. The person who commissioned this diorama, British merchant William Leckie, lived in the green house. It went up in flames during a fire that ravaged this part of Paramaribo in 1821.