Gezicht op de Guntur gezien vanuit Garut, Priangan, West-Java Possibly 1837

This pencil drawing of the Guntur volcano in West Java was made by Adrianus Johannes Bik in 1857. In this landscape, we see the volcano, a building on the left and a figure on the right. The image is interesting as a record of the Dutch colonial presence in Indonesia during that time. The Dutch East India Company, or VOC, had a significant impact on the region's social and economic structures from the 17th century onwards. Visual records such as this drawing tell us much about the Dutch colonial enterprise. Though it is seemingly a neutral landscape, it is in fact an image produced by a member of the colonial administration and it subtly reinforces a sense of colonial power and control over the landscape. Historians make use of resources from archives and historical societies, as well as visual analysis, in order to explore and understand the cultural context of works such as this. By doing so we can better understand the complex relationship between art, society, and institutions.