Portret van Carl Friedrich Philip von Martius 1850

This is a portrait of Carl Friedrich Philip von Martius, made by Erich Correns, sometime before 1877. Von Martius was a botanist whose work contributed to the European understanding of Brazil’s natural world. During this period, scientific exploration was deeply entangled with colonial expansion. The image is a somber depiction of a man of science, but it also speaks to the complicated legacy of scientific exploration during the colonial era. How do we reconcile the pursuit of knowledge with the power dynamics inherent in these expeditions? What did it mean to classify and document nature in lands far from Europe? The portrait invites us to reflect on the relationship between science, colonialism, and representation, and to consider the perspectives of those whose lands and knowledge were being accessed and interpreted.