European Traveler Artist
17th century saw a new organized and consistent movement of Europeans into the shores of India. Dutch, British, French and Portuguese companies increasingly started exerting pressures in all attempt to gain maximum control over trading privileges in India. It all started as an economic tussle to reap rich harvest in the field of trade and commerce between these European companies which gradually turned into war for the supremacy and rule of the occupier nation, in which the British East India Company came out clear winner in the mid-18th century. The British East India Company, as it is known, with the blessings of the British monarch, became the imperial overlords of India, began assuming economic, political and territorial control. As a result, irreversible changes in the socio- political landscape of India took place, transforming the country into the colony of the new colonizers.
Numerous artists of European origins arrived, started assuming their primary job side by side, with those already settled Company employees and their supporting staff. Records show, around 30 British portrait painters who were trained in Britain in technics to do oil paintings and 28 miniature artists travelled to India between 1770 and 1825 in search of commissions. Amongst the earliest European artists who visited India were John Zoffany, William Hodges, Tilly Kettle, William and Thomas Daniell, Emily Eden and several other artists of prominence. From around 1760 till mid-19th century, these itinerant artist-travelers extensively toured India working for the local Indian patrons, in the process created paintings and prints of numerous monuments, memorials, landscapes as well as portraits of the elites. Artists worked in the medium of oil paint on canvas or paper utilizing the skill they had acquired during their studies in western techniques which were primarily based on academic realism emphasizing on linear perspective. These European artists recorded scenes from their social surroundings both in prints and paintings by exploring vast landscapes, numerous historical edifices and monuments, also studying details about many communities and social groups which inhabited the land. Once filtered through the ‘orientalist’ lens, these works depicted India as an exotic as well as a land of mystery. Exquisite depiction of the ancient ghats of Benaras, dancing girls in royal courts, colorful costumes of various castes, portraits of local ruling elites, their courts and courtiers, delineation of various native occupations and the local flora and fauna confirms the idea.
18th-century India was “the theatre of scenes highly important to Britain”- William Hodges.
Worthy observation from the man who was one of the first British professional landscape painter to visit and worked in India. His six years’ stint in India under Warren Hastings, the most important among British officials of the subcontinent during that period, Hodges painted portraits and executed other tasks for Warren Hastings. In doing so, he extensively traveled through the length and breadth of India. All of these experiences were documented in the form of sketches and drawings, while many of these were basic recordings of the desired subjects of importance in the form of drawings and sketches which were later touched up into finished oil paintings or prints.
India assumed an increasingly important role in British political and economic life in the second half of the eighteenth century because of its unique position owing to its vast land area and untapped resources. The complex relationship between India and Britain has its roots in the activities of a London-based British trading company or the “Company of Merchants of London, trading to the East Indies” – commonly known to be the East India Company, and it effectively controlled almost all of the British trade with Asia since 1600 until the 19th century. Such was their presence that they used to be described as “the wealthiest and most powerful commercial corporation of ancient or modern times”.
By the time Hodges set foot in action, the company successfully transformed itself into a powerful economic and political entity in India.
The “intimate connection”- according to Hodges, between sub-continent India and European Britain was not merely a commercial or political one, it also exuded a sense of visual one, in an era when Europeans frantically attempted to fill their void in linguistic, cultural and visual knowledge about India. Sketches, drawings and paintings played possibly the most vital role in this process. The variety of elements in color, texture, hue and luminance of the subcontinent presented so many “valuable subjects for the painter” that it indeed attracted a host of artists and travelers - keen to record, depict and bear witness.
Not to mention, these artists helped in documentation and celebration of the richness and sophistication of Indian culture along with serving their patrons. Western artists obviously contributed through the intellectual engagement with India, offering simultaneous activities in other disciplines such as cartography, comparative linguistics and topographical surveying which are not pertinent subjects to be discussed here at this instance.
It’s obvious that European travelers and commentators, mainly the British artists who depicted India in that period had baggage of their own expectations, preconceptions, prejudices and superiority complex, which they had carried with them while travelling from their native land, thousands of kilometers away, and which they had acquired during days of their artistic training, from popular notions of taste and sense to the prevailing political sentiments in Europe at that hour. Nevertheless, paintings which were produced in the late 18th-century, during the heyday of the East India Company, reflect their significance and impact of the activities on the society at large and individually on Indians and Britons alike.
Among the European artists who touched the shores of India; Hodges was one of the most influential one. His brushes produced some of the most striking insights into the ways in which British artists engaged with India. Paintings of traveler artists presented an exhaustive view of a complex relationship between British artists and the local people, places and cultures these foreign artists visualized around them during their stay and work in India.
Thomas Daniell and his nephew, William, is another example of how deeply intertwined the East India Company, the Indian subcontinent and its representation in visual language had become. The Daniells, like William Hodges, were instrumental in introducing India to the audiences in Britain and making the country a subject for mainstream art in European sphere although their mission in India as an artist might not be entirely an artistic one. Compliment came from another contemporary about the works of Thomas Daniell, “increasing our enjoyment by bringing scenes to our fireside, too distant to visit, and too singular to be imagined”.
The influence of their work was extensive and enduring, can be seen in representations of India until the middle of the 19th century and beyond. Thomas Daniell was born near London in 1749. The son of an innkeeper, in his early life he apprenticed to a coach builder. Talent flourished while he was working for Charles Catton, a coach painter to George III, during the period 1770 till 1773. Thomas Daniell went on to enroll in the Royal Academy in the year 1773, where he had not only painted but also exhibited many of his of artworks over the next decade or so. Big break came when he received invitation from the East India Company in 1784 to work in India, as an “engraver”. His nephew, William, travelled along with him as an assistant and apprentice to begin a new chapter in their life as an artist.
The Daniell brothers worked primarily in Calcutta, which was the leading British commercial city and main base of East India Company in India by that time.
They restored paintings in the Council House and the Old Court House, two of the most important buildings. First topographical series of prints, recording different scenes of the surrounding areas and marking prospects in the fast-expanding metropolis were also added feathers to their hat. The final work was published as ‘Views of Calcutta’ between 1786 and 1788, in total twelve prints were engraved and colored under the supervision of Daniell brothers with the intensely active participation of local Indian artists.
The works of Daniell brothers with the assistance of Indian artists appeared to be very popular among Indians as well as Europeans. “Everybody has approved [their] Calcutta views”, as observed by Claude Martin, while William Hodges opined that the works offered exact descriptions in the way “the mixture of European and Asiatic manners, which may be observed in Calcutta”.
The delineation included scenes from the daily life of the elements of the society and view of the surrounding: “coaches, phaetons, single horse chaises, with the pallankeens and hackeries of the natives – the passing ceremonies of the Hindoos– the different appearances of the fakirs– [which] form a sight perhaps more novel and extraordinary than any city in the world can present to a stranger.”
Daniells, through their trained but artistic eyes captured the scenes of frenzied movement of an expanding metropolis, converting the observation of the travelers into visual representations.
View of “Calcutta from the River Hooghly” conveyed a lively scene with the ‘crowded river bustling with all sorts of crafts. In the center is a pinnace budgerow, (Bazra, a local luxurious big boat) flying a Union flag. A “country boat”, or indigenous craft, with bamboo decks and great rudders can be seen all around, a horse-headed pleasure craft can also be seen. Both the shores are lined with the houses and warehouses on which the stand the commercial success of the city.’
Scenes like these, interpreted, depicted and conveyed to the world so effectively through brush, ink, pencil or color by these artists, played a major role in making the company’s commercial and political activity in India a success – half the world away from Britain – and added to the color and hue of the world of art.
Tilly Kettle, the portrait painter of British origin and first prominent traveler artist active in India. Born in London, son of a coach painter, studied drawing with William Shipley. He travelled to India and landed in Madras in the year 1768 with East India Company, probably at the suggestion of Admiral Sir Samuel Cornish, again moved to Calcutta in the year 1771. Be the portraits of elites, or depicting scenes from the Indian society, he did paint all with great elan.
Another extraordinary artist of British origin was Marshall Claxton. Born on 12th May1813. At 17, he became pupil of John Jackson and enrolled as a student at The Royal Academy in London. On the day 22nd September,1854 Claxton set sail for Calcutta and stayed in India for the next three years. He was an artist of extraordinary caliber and excelled in both Portrait and Landscape painting. The artist died on 28th July, 1881 in London.
There was no dearth of artists from Europe travelled to India, as the news about the country spread throughout Europe and the early works of the European artists worked in India caught their attention while lure of an uncharted territory with possibilities of fresh artistic creation and financial gain overwhelmed the challenges they might encounter. Artists Like Emily Eden, John Zoffany and scores will always be remembered not only for their contribution towards helping the already entrenched establishment reach it’s further goal, but at the same time enriched Indian sphere of art. Not to mention they also enriched themselves by training of a new form of art rich in color and detailing. This enrichment was cheered up by the viewers in India and abroad. Bringing of new skill sets from the teachings of European school to the existing knowledge of the local master artists of that time, through their paintings, mostly using new techniques with varied perspective, added to the existing halo of the already beautiful Indian art.
The form of European traveler art is not merely ‘Time, captured on canvas’, but the perfection in detailing while depicting the society using light and shade, color and perspective – that never fails to amaze beholder’s eye even today.