Zweedse vogel Possibly 1787 - 1808

Jan Brandes made this drawing of a Swedish bird with pen and watercolor. It is an illustration from a travel journal. In the late 18th century, the Dutch East India Company sent Brandes to Asia as a clergyman. The image speaks to the Dutch Republic’s global reach in this period. The Company had a keen interest in natural history and employed artists to make records of plants, animals, and landscapes. These images created a sense of scientific mastery of the non-European world. There was a vogue for illustrated books such as this. They served as encyclopedic records, but also as symbols of national prestige. The detailed rendering of the bird reflects Enlightenment ideals of rational observation. To understand such images, art historians look at scientific, colonial, and institutional archives. We need to think about the way that books and images circulated in this period, and how this reflects the cultural values of the time.