Kop van een kaketoe 1725 - 1792

Curator: What a character! I swear he’s looking right at me, almost as if he's got something to say. Editor: Indeed. We’re observing “Head of a Cockatoo,” a pencil drawing created between 1725 and 1792, by Aert Schouman, now residing here at the Rijksmuseum. The technique is quite captivating; so much detail rendered simply with pencil. Curator: Exactly! And those layers of feathers, all in shades of gray, swirling around its face…it’s both realistic and strangely dreamlike. Like a feathered helmet! I'd say Schouman wasn't just looking at a bird, he was feeling it. Editor: Yes, but also consider the colonial context. Exotic birds, like this cockatoo, were fashionable pets among the European elite, symbols of wealth and worldly knowledge, obtained, of course, through exploitative trade routes. This portrait aestheticizes that power dynamic. Curator: Hmmm. True, there’s definitely an element of exoticism and maybe ownership here. But looking at that intense eye and slightly ruffled plumage, I can't help but wonder about the bird’s own story, its capture, its journey here. Editor: The gaze is compelling. Is it accusatory? Inquisitive? Perhaps Schouman captured something of the animal's displaced existence, but ultimately, we are still viewing it through a lens of colonial fascination and control. The question is: does appreciating the artistic skill inadvertently normalize that gaze? Curator: Well, perhaps that conflict IS what makes it so interesting! The beautiful skill evident, yes, but maybe we also pick up on this little ping of…wrongness… as we're observing its isolated exotic beauty. I am just amazed with the delicate work in rendering the texture. I could just stare into all the pencil hatching all day long! Editor: Yes. Perhaps confronting that "wrongness," as you put it, prompts us to question the history embedded in this image and our own role as observers in that narrative. Curator: So, maybe looking at this drawing, in the end, helps us to see ourselves more clearly too. I hadn't expected so much from just a parrot’s portrait! Editor: A revealing reflection on nature, art, and power.