Portret van Mungo Park c. 1800 - 1825

This print portrays Mungo Park and was made by Friedrich Wilhelm Bollinger. Park was a Scottish explorer of West Africa, a controversial figure whose expeditions were sponsored by the British government and the Royal Geographical Society. His image here, made by a German artist, encapsulates the global reach of European colonialism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The print creates meaning through its visual codes, presenting Park as a respectable, intellectual figure with an air of authority. This was a deliberate construction, designed to legitimize the explorer’s presence in Africa. The image, in its time, was not merely a portrait, but a tool of empire, subtly reinforcing the idea of European superiority and the right to explore and exploit other lands. To fully understand it, we must examine archival sources, colonial records, and the literature of the time, reflecting on the contingent nature of art and its role in shaping social and institutional contexts.