Arkivism
View of an open shed and entrance of a yard
Public domain

View of an open shed and entrance of a yard

Esaias Boursse · 1662 · brush; paper; ink

From the collection of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.

About this work

In the foreground, a road curves to the left and rear with a high vegetated embankment. On the right of the road stands a woman. She wears a foot-long wrap-skirt (redda) and a broad shawl over her upper body and arms. Her hair is tied up in a knot (condé). On the left in the embankment, several steps lead to a simple wooden access gate with a (metal?) roof, topped with a ball. On the pavement in front of the gate stands a person dressed in a calf-length hip-cloth (veshti, lungi) with an exposed upper body. His hair is tied up at the back. To the right of the entrance begins a fence of vertical posts/slats, connected halfway by a long horizontal rail. Through the fence, the wooden skeleton of a barn topped with a double roof of woven coconut palm leaves (cadjan) is visible. On the right side of the barn, a wall is built up to halfway in a traditional manner: woven screens of reeds, palm leaves, and/or wood (warichchi), filled and plastered with clay (mati).

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam’s own description
Credit lineView of an open shed and entrance of a yard. 1662. Esaias Boursse. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Public domain.

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