Hussaar, te voet, van het Reg. no. 7, en Infanterist (Inlander). Troepen in de Oost-Indiën 1826

Joannes Bemme made this print of two soldiers using etching and engraving techniques. One soldier is a European Hussar; the other is an indigenous infantryman of the Dutch East Indies. Bemme made this image at a time when the Dutch colonial empire was under pressure. It attempts to display an ordered vision of the colonial project. But look closer: the local soldier is noticeably shorter than his European counterpart, and he leans on his rifle in a posture of subservience. Cultural references are used to communicate social hierarchy. These visual cues tell us how the artist and his audience understood the relationship between colonizer and colonized. To understand this print fully, we need to investigate Dutch colonial history and the visual codes that shaped European perceptions of other cultures. Exploring military archives and colonial administrative records can reveal the complex realities behind this seemingly straightforward image.