Cossypha caffra (Cape robin-chat) Possibly 1777 - 1786

This is a study of a Cape robin-chat made with pen and watercolour by Robert Jacob Gordon, a Dutch explorer, in the late 18th century. Gordon was commissioned by the Dutch East India Company and his natural history illustrations, like this one, served the colonial project of mapping the resources of the Cape. As such, the image exists at the intersection of scientific observation and colonial expansion. The robin-chat is carefully observed, its features delineated with precision. But this act of scientific cataloguing was also a way of claiming knowledge about the natural world for European audiences. The very act of naming and classifying becomes a form of control. To understand this image fully, we need to look at the social and economic context of the Dutch East India Company, and its role in shaping the natural world through exploration and resource extraction. Through that research, this beautiful study of a bird also reveals something about the complex relationship between Europe and the wider world.