Gezicht op Anyer 1867

Adrianus Johannes Bik made this pencil drawing, titled ‘Gezicht op Anyer’, which translates to ‘View of Anyer’. The scene depicts Anyer, a coastal town in West Java, Indonesia. However, it's not merely a landscape; it’s a document of Dutch colonial presence in the region. Note the prominence of the Dutch flag, asserting dominance over the landscape. The drawing would have served the cultural and institutional function of communicating the extent of Dutch influence in the East Indies. It offers insight into the visual codes of colonial power. To fully understand this image, research into the Dutch East India Company and its impact on Indonesian society would be invaluable. The Rijksmuseum itself, as the repository of this image, is an institution with a complex history tied to Dutch colonialism. The social conditions of artistic production were directly linked to the political and economic structures of the time. By acknowledging this context, we can interpret the drawing not just as a view, but as a statement of colonial power.