Six labourers 1662

Esaias Boursse made this pencil drawing, Six Labourers, sometime in the mid-17th century. The image gives us a glimpse into the world of the Dutch East India Company, for which Boursse worked. We know that Boursse travelled to the East in the 1660s, and his drawings are often understood as ethnographic studies. The men depicted are anonymous. While they seem to be the subject of his study, the images tell us more about the artist and the intentions of the Dutch East India Company than about the labourers themselves. The composition echoes the common trope of the noble savage. Note that the labourers are exoticized by their clothing, or lack thereof. To understand the social and institutional context of Boursse's work, one could consult the Company's records and visual archives from the period. This reminds us that images are not neutral, but products of specific social and institutional forces.