Three Sinhalese soldiers 1662

Esaias Boursse created this sketch of "Three Sinhalese Soldiers" using graphite during his time with the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century. Boursse, like many artists employed by the VOC, documented his encounters with unfamiliar cultures, often through the lens of the colonizer. The men depicted are Sinhalese, the majority ethnic group of Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon. These men are rendered with a delicate hand, each with unique features and expressions, yet the depiction is ethnographic. While seemingly benign, these images participated in a broader project of cataloging and understanding colonized peoples, part of the machinery of empire. Consider how the act of drawing itself becomes a tool of power, fixing these men in the gaze of the artist and, by extension, the European audience. What stories might these soldiers have told about their lives, their resistance, and their world?