Sitting woman 1662

Esaias Boursse created this small drawing of a seated woman in the mid-17th century. Boursse worked for the Dutch East India Company and he made multiple images depicting life in the East Indies. During this time, the Dutch Golden Age flourished through overseas trade and colonialism. But for those who were colonized, this period represented a loss of autonomy. The woman’s bare feet and simple clothing mark her as other, a body rendered available for the European gaze. The intimacy of the sketch, however, complicates this dynamic. Her posture conveys a sense of introspection, and the unfinished quality of the drawing perhaps reveals Boursse's own complex relationship to the colonial project. The woman is neither exoticized nor idealized, but presented with a quiet dignity. The emotional resonance of this image lies in this tension between the power dynamics of representation and the woman’s reserved, yet palpable, sense of self.