Stock-farm of Willem Prinsloo, near Bruintjes Hoogte Possibly 1777 - 1778

Robert Jacob Gordon made this pen and wash drawing, Stock-farm of Willem Prinsloo, near Bruintjes Hoogte, in 1791. It depicts a colonial farm in what is now South Africa. But it isn't just an innocent landscape; it tells a complex story of colonialism, land ownership, and cultural encounter. Consider what it meant to survey and record this landscape. Gordon was an officer in the Dutch East India Company. These surveys were part of a larger project of mapping and claiming territory. Notice the way the farm is presented: orderly, productive, almost like a model for colonial settlement. But what about the people who lived here before? As historians, we use archival sources like the records of the Dutch East India Company to understand the historical context. This drawing then becomes not just a picture, but a document in a history of colonial expansion. And a reminder that what we see in a museum is always shaped by larger historical forces.