Himantopus himantopus ? (Black-winged stilt) Possibly 1777 - 1786

Robert Jacob Gordon created this watercolor of a Black-winged stilt. Gordon was a Dutch explorer, military officer, and naturalist of Scottish descent, active in the late 18th century. As an explorer in service of the Dutch East India Company, Gordon was a figure deeply implicated in the complex colonial history of South Africa. His drawings, while scientifically motivated, reflect a European perspective on the landscape and its inhabitants. The scientific method used flattens any sense of the land having an identity and is more about categorization. This image of a Black-winged Stilt, with its clinical precision, carries the weight of that history. It's a reminder that even seemingly objective depictions of nature are shaped by the cultural and political contexts in which they are produced, eliding the relationship between the environment, the people, and the naturalist.