Man met tulband zittend in kleermakerszit en 19 soldaten die allen een fez dragen 1830 - 1845

Henricus Wilhelmus Couwenberg created this print, titled 'Man met tulband zittend in kleermakerszit en 19 soldaten die allen een fez dragen,’ sometime between 1814 and 1845. The image presents us with an orientalist fantasy, a scene of power and exoticism likely consumed by a European audience. The central figure, adorned in a turban, sits cross-legged, elevated above a gathering of soldiers wearing fezzes, traditional headwear. These men, depicted in near uniformity, stand in stark contrast to the central figure, highlighting a power dynamic but also gesturing at the complexities of cultural representation and identity. Couwenberg, who died young, may have been trying to capture the spirit of a place he never knew, filtered through the lens of European imagination. The print, with its detailed rendering of costume and setting, invites us to consider how such images contribute to the construction of cultural identity. It asks us to question how we see ourselves, and how we see others, through the artistic expressions of a particular time.