Vogelkop 1860 - 1921

This sketch, "Vogelkop" by Adolf le Comte, invites us to consider the intersections of art, identity, and colonial history. Le Comte, working in a time of expanding European exploration, presents us with what appears to be a portrait of a person from the Vogelkop Peninsula in New Guinea. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, images like these played a role in shaping European understandings of non-Western cultures. They often depicted individuals as ‘exotic’ or ‘primitive,’ reflecting the power dynamics of the time. What does it mean to sketch a person from a culture vastly different from one's own? How do our identities shape our perception of others? This sketch invites us to reflect on how we see and represent those who are different from us. It challenges us to consider the human stories behind these representations, and to think critically about the ways in which art can both reflect and shape societal attitudes.